


Psychological Evaluations

by TheGhostOfInjustice



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, I promise everything will hopefully be clear in the end, No relationships as of yet - Freeform, Slow To Update, Spirits, Team as Family, a lot of world building because I can't help myself, burn canon to the ground and dance on it's ashes, down with cannon, let's see how this goes folks, not canon team 7, team switch, things get worse and then worse some more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-02 07:37:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 31,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16782556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGhostOfInjustice/pseuds/TheGhostOfInjustice
Summary: “Team 7 will consist of Haruno Sakura,” here Sakura perked up at the sound of her own name, “Inuzuka Kiba and,” he paused wetting his lips slightly, “Nara Shikamaru.”The classroom was oddly silent, the awkwardness hanging heavily over the room.  Three rows up she saw the awake Nara heir glance over at his two companions.  Even from here she could see him thinking, taking in this sudden change.





	1. Beginning of the End

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! New story!
> 
> I've been writing this for about a year and there's still no clear ending but I know where I want it to go so we'll see how long it takes to end up that way.
> 
> I can't promise anything time wise for updates, I have a bunch of this written already so I'll post it when I think it's good enough.
> 
> Also, no beta we die like men.
> 
> PS: Disclaimer, I do not own any of these character, I receive no monetary awards by doing this nor do I claim any endorsements as a result of this work.

Sarutobi sighed as he clutched the paper in front of him. The edges where slightly crinkled from his own hands but the neat and precise writing of the psychologist did not change. Shortly after the event of the Uchiha massacre the Civilian Council had demanded extensive revisions to the Academy curriculum. The Civilian Council, which represented the ideals of the civilian population located within the walls of Konoha, expressed distrust with the current handling of the Academy. They reasoned that the failings of Academy were the reason for Itachi’s defection and subsequent mass murder of his clan. They thought that Itachi should have never been allowed to become a ninja and that the Academy, the crucial gate between ninja and civilian, should never have allowed someone so clearly mentally unstable to graduate.

That had been several years ago now. The Civilian Council had pressed for reforms, the Clan Council had pressed for things to remain unchanged and his personal Advisory Council had been generally unhelpful. Sarutobi had struggled to deal with balancing the desires of the Civilian Council and the Clan Council in desperate attempts to ease the growing tensions that had been left behind after the Uchiha Police force had disappeared. With no Police Force currently in the village the civilians had become unrestful and distrustful of the considerable power of the ninja’s who lived with them. They were concerned that another Itachi could spring up at any moment, but instead of targeting family and clan members they could target defenceless civilians. 

In some ways the Clan Council agreed with the reasoning of the Civilian Council, however, they were being difficult about the reforms in an effort to preserve the stronghold that they held over the Academy curriculum. 

Despite recent efforts to include civilian children in the Academy their were few that actually made it to graduation. Children were sponges absorbing anything and everything from their parents. This led towards high rates of bullying in the Academy from the clan children in regards to the civilian children. Clan children, who’d been trained since birth to be ninja, often easily over powered and humiliated the civilian children. The pass rate of civilian children from year one to year two was 25%, the graduation rate of civilian children was 5%. This meant that within the past five years, approximately one civilian child had graduated from the academy. That child now worked as a receptionist in the hospital after having retired from active duty, three months and one failed chuunin exam later. 

That’s what made it so important that the Civilian Council made sure they felt heard. The civilian population accounted for 70% of the actual population of Konoha, if they could even get the smallest fraction of those children to enter the Academy they could see an increase in the ninja forces that they had seen drastically depleted by the Third War and the decimation of the Uchiha clan. 

Eventually the Civilian Council and the Clan Council had come to an agreement. The Civilian Council demanded that in order for an academy student to graduate they had to pass a physiological evaluation by a registered and approved childhood psychologist. The Clan Council agreed on the grounds that an Yamanaka member also evaluate the graduates after the psychologist and determine the correctness of the psychologists assessment in relation to a future career as a ninja of this village.

After two long years filled with constant bickering and squabbling the new regulations regarding graduation had been implemented just in time for the class containing the last Uchiha. 

Sarutobi had tried to delay the regulation for another year. However, the Civilian and Clan Council’s had both pressed for the immediate induction of the new rules. Sarutobi knew each side had their own reasons to press the instant introduction of the psychological assessments. The Civilian Clan knew that most of the up and coming clan heirs were staged to be graduating this year. If even one of them could be determined as mentally unstable and unfit for ninja duty, it would allow them to gain a foothold into the Academy. The Clan Council, who’d long protested allowing Naruto into the academy in the first place, could use this as an excuse to argue that Naruto could be considered mentally unstable and unsuitable for ninja life. 

He’d done everything he could to delay the new regulation however, he’d been unable to fight both of the Councils especially when they finally agreed on something. 

This agreement is what lead to the current predicament that the third Hokage found himself in. He placed the assessment on his desk and smoothed out the slightly crinkled edges half hoping that it would change the words on the paper.

It didn’t.

The scowling face of Uchiha Sasuke stared up at him, the picture half obscured by the stamped red letters across his face, marking him as unacceptable by the civilian psychologist. The next page was the report by Yamanaka Ume, written underneath the picture this time, also in red pen, were the words, ‘rejected’ in a half eligible scrawl vastly different from neat precision of the civilian psychologist yet somehow strikingly similar. 

This was another reason he’d struggled to delay the new graduation requirement. It was well known that the last loyal member of the Uchiha clan was unstable, the numerous psychologists and therapists the boy had seen over the years had all come back with similar conclusions. PTSD coupled with an obsessive compulsive disorder centred around his desperation to take revenge against his brother. Physically the boy was in good health, mentally the boy couldn’t be more ill if he was the one who had killed his family in the first place.

The recent revelation threw off all of his carefully ordered plans. If the assessment got back to the Civilian and Clan Councils they’d demand that the Uchiha be made an example of in an effort to enforce the seriousness behind the new requirement. The result of this enforcement meant that he’d either have to hold the Uchiha back a year or kick him out of the Academy all together. This could have serious repercussions. Not only would the Uchiha not graduating this year provide them with an uneven number children for teams but it could mean that they could potentially lose the loyalty of the last Uchiha. Whether the Uchiha would admit it or not he was relatively close with his year mates. Throwing hm in with a group of unknown children could potentially damage what few remaining ties he had with other humans, separating him now would only further his isolation. Outright kicking him out of the Academy before his graduation would probably result in the Uchiha going rogue, and short of confining him to a small cell until he was of decent reproductive age, their would be no way to make him remain in the village. 

This would mark the official end of the Uchiha clan and open up Konoha to scrutiny by other countries. Such a loss of power could present Konoha as weak and that was the last thing that they needed especially in times just beginning to be marked by an uneasy peace. 

He’d already had Sasuke placed in a group with Naruto, who’d been cleared by the psychologist and the Yamanaka, and the only graduating civilian born child in the year, Sakura Haruno. 

He grabbed their assessments out of the pile. Naruto’s was rather clean cut, the Yamanaka’s assessment was short, simply stating him as balanced and loyal. The psychologist, however, remarked that while he had passed the assessment he should be further monitored as he showed signs of isolation and social awkwardness that most likely resulted from continued rejection by his peers and no parental leadership. Sarutobi felt a brief sting of pain at that. He had protected the boy to the best of his abilities but their was so much more that he wished he’d been able to do for him. His position as Hokage just simply wouldn’t allow him too and that stung him more then he cared to admit. 

He’d planned on placing them on a team with Hatake Kakashi. Kakashi had been reckless as of late, taking more and more suicide missions. He was vital to Konoha’s survival, however, as he was a powerful backbone of the force and a possible candidate to take over ANBU command in the event of the current head’s retirement, not to mention he was the last member of the once prominent Hatake clan. He’d structured the team to be as close as possible to the team that Kakashi had lost, with Naruto as his best friend, Sasuke as himself and the civilian girl as the final lost team member. Even assigning them the moniker of Team 7 was an attempt to play on Kakashi’s nostalgia. 

He briefly eyed the civilian, Sakura Haruno’s, profile. The psychologist passed her with flying colours, noting her as a well adjusted and sympathetic young girl. The Yamanaka assessment noted that while she was seemingly well adjusted the light probing of the girls mind hinted at a mind too clean of secrets with many hidden and well guarded doors that the Yamanaka was unable to access in the limited time she had spent with the girl. While she was recommend for graduation the Yamanaka suggested that the girl be closely monitored in the future.

With Sasuke’s failed evaluation that meant that this team could no longer exist. Sarutobi had no doubt he’d be able to convince the Councils to allow Sasuke to graduate, but he knew that they’d have stipulation. Placing him on a team with a notoriously mentally unstable jounin leader, potentially unstable jinchuuriki and a civilian that could be put at risk from such a volatile team, would be met with heavy rejection. This team was no longer a possibility. 

He placed each file in it’s own pile and began to leaf threw the possible graduates, separating out the few that were recommended to be placed on jounin led teams. The rest of the graduates would be placed on chuunin led teams or genin led teams. Their were only so many available jounin to take teams each year. With an average class size of 30 to 33, they were unable to provide jounin captains for each team. Not only did the village not have enough jounin capable and willing enough to take on teams, it took multiple years, sometime up to 10, before a team would be mature and strong enough to leave their captains. Often times the groups would choose to stay together and form well bonded four person teams. Because of this only the top nine genin of each year were selected for potentially learning under jounin captains. Often times only one group would pass, only twice in Konoha history did all three teams pass the jounins individual requirements to form teams. 

The next three candidates where the famous Ino-Shika-Chou formation, this year made up entirely of clan heirs. Ino Yamanaka, potentially the best user of the Mind Transfer jutsu the clan had ever produced, was as fearsome as her father before her. Both assessments noted a tendency towards manipulation and a forceful personality. 

As loath as he was to break up the Ino-Shika-Chou formation, especially considering that the pregnancy of the three current candidates had been specifically angled towards them all graduating at the same time, Ino had greater need elsewhere. By placing the Yamanaka member of the formation with Uchiha Sasuke he could quell the Councils worries about an unnoticed psychological break happening. Yamanaka’s where known for their keen eyes and abilities to predict mental instability. The Yamanaka clan could not object to the placement without bringing scrutiny onto itself, because if the next future clan head couldn’t keep track of the mental condition of one child then where her abilities really as good as the clan said they were? And if the Yamanaka clan were backing the placement then the Nara and Akimichi clans would follow their example. 

That simply left the matter of the finally team member and the captain. The final member was easily placable. Naruto would round the personalities out well in this scenario, with his sunny personality he’d be able to loosen up the Yamanaka heir and his background meant that he’d be able to connect with the Uchiha about their similar loses.

The captain was a different story. He’d wanted to place Kakashi on the team with the Uchiha for obvious reasons but he knew that the placement would be rejected. Kakashi was too unstable as it was, and placing him with an unstable child would only draw the ire of the Council. That left two options. Kurenai, who would be a good choice except for the fact that she was so green to teaching. She was smart, intelligent and kind. But she wouldn’t know what to do with a team composed of this many problems. Besides that the Hyuga clan had already allowed the women to enter the clan and meat the heiress, if he resigned her now he’d be doing no favours to himself in the long run.

That only left his son. While he wouldn’t have normally even considered this option it did have merit. This wasn’t his sons first time teaching a genin squad, he was familiar with fire type ninjutsu and close range combs that the Uchiha clan favoured. He was trustworthy and strong enough to be able to protect the Yamanaka clan heir and didn’t carry any prejudice towards Naruto. Outside of the contributions that his son offered to the team, by placing him the team it showed that he was placing enough trust in this teams success that he was willing to bet his only offspring on it.

With one team decided it left him with only a handful of choices for the rest. Hinata Hyuga, Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, Sakura Haruno, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka. 

It was already decided that Hinata Hyuga would be placed on the same team as Kurenai which left the simple matter of which two of the remaining four boys would be placed with her. 

He’d originally wanted to orient the Hyuga’s team towards tracking with the Aburame and the Inuzuka. However, with the dissolving of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio it left him with greater options. He hadn’t had a good diplomatic centred team in ages and the Akimichi’s where known to be well tempered and well connected. With the unstable times ahead of them he could practically taste the mellow and threatening nature the new team provided him with. The perfect accent would be the Aburame heir. The clan was also known to be patient with a sadistic taste for revenge in the case of perceived slights. 

That just left the odd ones out. Simply by process of elimination Kakashi’s team would be filled with Shikamaru Nara, Sakura Haruno and Kiba Inuzuka. He frowned down at their personality assessments. The Nara was lazy and unmotivated but shockingly smart, the civilian was docile and kind and the Inuzuka brash and loud. He couldn’t see them lasting long, he couldn’t even see what specialization they would fit. 

With Kurenai’s team he geared them towards diplomacy, Asuma’s team didn’t have a set path either but the basic idea would be a front line team or heavy hitter team, especially considering that it was loaded with potential future powerhouses. Kakashi’s team was a mystery and would most likely stay that way. 

Even as he signed off on the paperworks to make the team placements permanent he began working out the positions that he would send the Nara and the Inuzuka when the team crumbled. The Nara would be given an internship at the Interrogation and Torture Unit and the Inuzuka could easily be placed on a tracking team as an apprentice. The civilian could do a rotation in the Archives and settle down with a desk job shortly after.

Not entirely satisfied with the team arrangements but positive that he’d be able to make them work in the long run, he added the paperwork to his complete pile and grabbed the next set of documents, this time revolving around the final approval of the chuunin led teams.

Sakura stared at herself in the full length mirror in her bedroom. The bedroom was painted a soft pastel pink, unchanged since before her birth, and contained her dresser, her bed, and a window which was decorated with a pair of soft white curtains. 

She always started her day this way, at least for as long as she had lived in this house, with her dressing and standing in front of her mirror. She smiled to the mirror. The corner of her smile was lopsided so she dropped it. She smiled again, this time however it was too wide and pulled at her lips, draining them of colour. The pale shade her lips had taken on blended in with her pale skin colour and made her look like a mouthless spectre. 

Her smile dropped again. She breathed in, breathed out and tried one more time. This time she was carful to form each section of her smile individually. First she pulled up the corners until they were just the right height, she then pulled her smile out further until it looked half decent.

“My name is Sakura Haruno.” She told her smiling mirror self. “I like Sasuke-kun and I hate Ino-pig. Naruto is annoying and I am the best. I am the smartest. No one can best me.” Her mirror self repeated it back to her twice more, smiling and gradually becoming more animated. She winked at herself, flashed herself a peace sign and flipped her hair. 

Her hair was long and pink. The strands caught on the edges of her fingers and not for the first time she contemplated hacking it all off. She’d look good bald or partially shaven, but then she’d also stand out. It was inadvisable for her to stand out.

The final piece, and the newest piece, was the headband located on top of her dresser. She’d replaced the blue fabric with red fabric last night, carful dismantling the metal and removing the stitching and pins holding it in place. She’d then retraced the motions backwards, pinning and stitching the metal band on to the red fabric and securing the back with a piece of leather to help hold it in place and prevent the buildup of sweat. 

“My name is Sakura Haruno. I am a civilian. I am twelve. I like Sasuke-kun and I hate Ino-pig. I have never killed anyone.” She secured the headband around her forehead. The leather was cold and the knot was uncomfortable at the base of her neck. She slowly untied it and then retied it around her waste. It looked better and didn’t feel nearly as uncomfortable as before but it still looked weird. She didn’t think it would ever not look weird.

She gave the mirror her one more well crafted smile before exiting her room and making her way down the pale green hallway to the stairs. Their were two other doors in this floor, the bathroom which was the closest door to her room, and then at the end of the hallway was her parents room. The room had sat unoccupied for three years now, the dust gathering on the bed inside. It had been many years since she’d seen her parents and would be many more before she would see them again. On the surface her parents were traveling merchants, in reality they were visiting family.

Making her way into the kitchen she scarfed down two cardboard tasting nutrition bars and followed it up with a glass of water. 

The clock above the stove showed the time to be getting close to when she needed to be at the Academy. Throwing her trash into the garbage can under the sink she made her way to the door. She slipped into the navy blue, standard issue, sandals, wiggling her toes against the somehow already sweaty plastic soles. The shoes were as uncomfortable as her clothing choices but they were just another thing that helped make her indescribable from the rest of the population. Leaving the house she was carful to make sure to securely lock the door before hiding the fake key underneath the door mat. She made a point of not looking around at her surroundings, taking a leisure-filled amount of time in completing the task, whistling a pleasant tune under her breath as she did so. She then skipped down the path with one of her well practiced smiles on her face.

The real key to the door was hidden under a false flap of skin on her wrist, the key she placed under the door mat was rigged to cause an explosion when put into the lock. If any of the windows or doors were forcibly opened without the specific code she used then they were also rigged to explode with a mix of glass and metal shrapnel that she’d hidden within the windowsills. 

She headed slowly down the dusty streets of Konoha, waving merrily at the tired eyed civilians that she encountered on her way. It was not yet eight, and as such most of the venders were still unpacking their carefully stored goods, the only ones already set up were the stands that specifically catered to the ninja clientele of the village. They would pack up in three hours when the general rush of the village shoppers were just beginning, and then open again at one in the morning, when the late night mission stragglers where just entering the village gates. To use these select booths one had to have a ninja identification number and pass, to do so without them could result in a hefty find and even jail time. They offered more specialized services then the civilian booths and dealt not only in food and goods but also the trading of information and bounties. To use these services was a privilege and not a right, much to the huff of many of the civilian population.

The rest of the walk to the Academy was rather dull. It wasn’t until she was fifty meters from the school that Ino came out of nowhere. The blond was full out running, yelling at her as she went by that she would bet her to class. Huffing she took off too, making sure to make it seem that every step was harder to take then it actually was. The Yamanaka girl often travelled with the Nara and Akimichi heirs. While the two of them looked rather unobservant the Nara heir in particular was rather sharp and intelligent when he was awake, anything out of the ordinary could be quickly picked up by him. Even while it might not have had repercussions then, it certainly could have them in the future.

Sakura beat the heiress to the door by half of a second, just as she’d hoped, and took her rightful seat by the ever constipated looking Uchiha heir. The boy might as well have been asleep from all the attention that he paid towards her and the red-faced blond. 

Absently, as she arrogantly told Ino she’d be the one on Sasuke-kun’s team and not her, she wondered how the boy had passed the psychological evaluation. While he was smart and skilled to a certain degree, he definitely wasn’t what one would call a shining example of mental health. To say that would be liken to saying Orochimaru shat rainbows and smiled with sunshine and had never hurt another living being in his entire life. 

The rest of the class began to gradually file in, with Naruto arriving just under the wire. Sakura was rather surprised to see him, even more so when he announced himself a graduate of the class. She hadn’t expected him to pass the final results, not with his failed henge, but it appeared that he had.

The blonde quickly got into an argument with Sasuke, the two of them getting closer and closer until their lips connected in a rather dramatic series of events. Sakura made her to raise her voice in shock with the rest of the female population of the class, barely resisting the urge to snicker under her breath. She might have had a ‘crush’ on Sasuke-kun, but, come on, it was funny! 

Iruka arrived just in time to save Naruto from a rather violent beating. The blonde settled in his seat beside her, shooting her puppy eyes the whole while that made her want to shove him out of his seat. He was almost as bad as she was.

Iruka sighed heavily as he took the front of the room, his whole body was stiff and his posture was a little too straight. Usually when Iruka lectured them he stood at the front of the class room, walking back and forth and making animated gestures with his hands when he described something he was particularly passionate about. Today he did none of those things. Instead he sat heavily in his seat, back ram rod straight, as he addressed the class, weary eyes dragging over them individually before pausing on Naruto’s spot beside her for just a fraction too long. If Sakura had been anyone else she would have attributed his weariness to his reluctance to send them out into the real world, but Sakura was nothing if not observant. To her his whole body screamed of something wrong, though she wasn’t sure what. Three rows up and slightly to the left she watched the gradual stiffening of the Nara heirs posture as he came to a similar conclusion. 

“It’s been an honour teaching you.” Iruka told the class, voice pinched and eyes tight. “It’s been an honour teaching you. Never before have I been more proud of a class, more certain that they will go out into the world ready to change it.” Here his eyes lingered over Naruto again before quickly skipping to Shishi Ukka in row five, “I have great hope that each and every one of you will grow strong both in spirit and mind. Times will be tough, they will be harsh and unkind to you. However, when you feel as if your will will be broken, remember that the Will of Fire is their to warm you and guide you. In this village you will always have a home.” Smiling Iruka allowed his words to wash over them. Sakura felt nothing at his speech.

“Now before I announce the teams you will all be placed on I have some rules. Each team has been predetermined from the Hokage so I am unable to change the teams. If any of you have issues with them then you must file an appeal with the board of administration here at the Academy and if they believe that it is a fitting complaint they will give you a form to take to the Hokage’s office where you can set up an appointment with the the secretary to change it. If it is not a valid reason then it can not be changed. No matter how much you beg me, I simply don’t have the authority. Second of all, because of the size of the class you will be split up into sections of three and sent off into three separate rooms. In room A-7, across the hall, teams 1, 2, 3, and 5 will be their, teams, 4, 6, and 9 will be in room B-3 on the second level and teams, 7, 8 and 10 will stay here. Please remember which rooms to go to after I announce the teams, I don’t want to have to repeat myself.” Iruka’s gaze swept over them like a sickle, reminding each of them that while he was no longer their teacher he was not afraid to make any of them stay after class and clean black board erasers, even if they were considered legal adults now.

“Now! Without further delay, here is you’re assignments!”

The teams were rather predictable in Sakura’s opinion. The first six teams were composed of the lower end of the class, mostly low level ninja families and clan kids of lesser importance whose parents couldn’t afford extra lessons or had little to teach their children in way of skills. Those teams were the ones who’d be given to chuunin or genin leaders to make themselves useful as cogs in the administrative machine. Some of them had the potential to become front line ninja’s or gain apprenticeships should the teams they were placed on fail. Ami Unoko was placed on team 3, Sakura was smug to see. The little shit was an annoying pest in Sakura’s life and she was more then happy to see her fail. With the addition of Akkon Hebiki, a clan child whose parents specialized in the care of the messenger hawks, she could say with almost 100% accuracy that this team was slotted to fail and disband. Akkon would receive an apprenticeship at the aviary where he’d already showed an active interest and Ami would most likely stay a carrier genin and retire to start a family, or stay on as an administrative member of the Hokage’s regime. Never would she become an active member of any team, something Sakura took vindictive pride in. 

However their was a slight pause in the room after the announcement of Team 6. Iruka, who was still sitting down, shifted minutely in his seat. The shift was enough to regain her attention however, along with that of Shikamaru and the Hyuuga heiress whose laser vision focused on the uncomfortable looking teacher.

“Team 7 will consist of Haruno Sakura,” here Sakura perked up at the sound of her own name, “Inuzuka Kiba and,” he paused wetting his lips slightly, “Nara Shikamaru.” The classroom was oddly silent, the awkwardness hanging heavily over the room. Three rows up she saw the awake Nara heir glance over at his two companions. Even from here she could see him thinking, taking in this sudden change. Sakura didn’t blame him, she certainly hadn’t seen this coming. The Ino-Shika-Cho formation was famous and had been around since before her birth, before the birth of Konoha even. The trio in front of her had their births planned around the greatest formation of the combination yet to come, even if they had all been girls or boys they would have most likely been placed on the same team together. Sakura couldn’t even begin to fathom what would have brought the Hokage to even consider separating the three of them, not to mention what actually made him separate them.

Iruka cleared his throat. “The next team is Team 8, it will consist of Hinata Hyuuga, Aburame Shino, and Akimichi Choji.” 

Choji was to be placed with a Hyuuga and an Aburame. That was pretty unusual. The Akimichi clan had great ties to most of the clans within the village and a large portion of clans not in the village. They traded heavily in the food industry and owned many high end restaurants that allowed them to be in a good position for maintaining relations. However, their was tension with the Akimichi clan and the Hyuuga clan that dated back to the founding. The Hyuuga clan had protested agains the inclusion of the Akimichi clan and the Akimichi clan had relented by charging them more for food and services. The Hyuuga clan, to this day even, rarely traded with the Akimichi and when they did they always over charged them and sold them the lesser crop yields. Sakura couldn’t understand the reasoning behind his team either Unless the Hokage was trying to increase inter-clan relations, which she doubted because having arguing clans only made it easier for him in the long run, the team simply didn’t make any sense. 

“And the final team, Team 10, will be composed of the remaining three members, Yamanaka Ino, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.” Three rows up Ino didn’t even celebrate her win over Sakura in being the one placed on Sasuke’s team. Instead Sakura saw her glancing wearily between her two friends and fellow heirs. Sakura didn’t blame her. None of it made sense, the matchups didn’t make sense. 

“I thank you for being such great students and look forward to your future accomplishments,” Iruka finished, voice a touch sharper then usual as he tried to cut threw the tension in the room. “Now please go to your proper rooms, your leaders will be with you momentarily to gather you.” With that Iruka stood up and practically fled the room before anyone could even hope to raise voice against the assignments. Without anyone to complain to the students gradually began to get up and move, awkwardly meeting with their classmates, some of them who they hadn’t talked to since the beginning of the term.

The only three teams that remain in the room where teams 7, 8 and 10.

Team 8 and Team 10 where quick to round up their kids, both teachers where in and out in under a minuet. The black haired leader of Team 8 came first, gathering her team with a brisk efficiency that made Sakura envious. Team 10’s sensei appeared shortly after. Sakura actually recognized him as the Hokage’s son, newly returned from a long sabbatical. To place him on a team with the last Uchiha and Yamanaka heiress showed the Hokage’s investment in the team but Sakura figured that the investment was superficial at best. If she had to guess she would reason he was placed their to keep a firmer eye on the last Uchiha, whose mental stability swayed depending on the day. This way the Hokage had a direct line to assess the success or failure of Sasuke and determine if more drastic measures would need to be taken to insure the survival of the Uchiha clan. 

Finally all that was left in the classroom was her, Shikamaru and Kiba along with Kiba’s ninken Akamaru. The small, still puppy like, ninken was fast asleep on his partners head, letting out tiny barks and huffs every once in a while. Each time he did this Kiba would reach up and scratch his head, causing the pup to settle once more. 

“So I guess we’re teammates now.” The Inuzuka stated, breaking the tension that had settled over the room. Sakura snorted.

Kiba turned in his seat to look at her, he was located in the front row and Sakura in the back, but even from their she could see the squinting of his eyes. “Got something to say.” The Inuzuka challenged. 

Sakura hummed. She had a lot to say, she always had a lot to say, but very rarely did people actually want to hear what she had to say.

“Nope, not a word.” Kiba’s eyes narrowed farther, she was honestly surprised he could still see with how much he was squinting. 

“If you have something to say, just say it.”

“I already told you that I have nothing to say mutt.” Sakura hissed, voice tight in warning. 

“What did you just call me?” 

“Oh, I’m sorry did you not hear me? I thought dogs had great hearing.”

“Why you little-“ The Inuzuka made as if to launch across his seat at her, body tensing to complete the movement.

“Shut up.” The Nara spoke for the first time. Sakura couldn’t see his face, but if she had to place a bet she’d say his eyes were closed. His posture was tense, so clearly he was not sleeping, and his voice was harsh.

The mutt quieted down, so Sakura threw her feet up on the desk and crossed her ankles, looking the perfect picture of relaxed. She was anything but. This was not the situation she anticipated finding herself in. To be placed with a Nara was dangerous, to be placed with a Inuzuka was even worse. Not only would she have to watch her each and every move ever second of every day, she would also have to up her scent masking, using more perfumes and scented body washes and lotions then she already did. Even now she used them, taking quiet pleasure in the gentle crinkle of Kiba’s nose whenever she came too close during classes or spars, but now she’d have to double down. If their team was a genin or chuunin led team then they would most likely be stuck permanently together until one or all of them advanced in the ranks or accepted an apprenticeship. That meant she’d be in close proximity with all of them, would sweat and bleed with them and go on long trips outside of the village with them. It would only be a matter of time before her real scent came out, especially if she didn’t take precautions now.

The classroom was quiet again, broke only by Akamaru’s soft breathing and the occasional shift from Kiba. Sakura feel into an almost meditative state, counting the soft falling petals outside the window one by one, watching the ruffling of the leaves by the wind and the dappled sunlight that occasional filtered into the stuffy classroom and made mischievous shapes on the desks.

After what felt like hours the Nara in front of her sighed, shoulders slackening with defeat. 

“I don’t get it.” He hissed, voice sharp.

“Get what?” Kiba asked, picking his head up from the desk where it had been resting. The Inuzuka could go from zero to one hundred in under three seconds if they had too, most likely an after effect of their distant k-9 heritage. 

“Why we’re a team. What do you think?” 

“Hey man I’m just asking.” The Inuzuka held up his hands in front of him in an offering of peace. The Nara excepted it with an incline of his head though his body posture hadn’t changed. 

“I agree. I should be on a team with Sasuke-kun, not you losers. Now Ino-pig has a head start on me.” Sakura made sure to keep her voice high and whiny, adding an aggregated pout on her face when both members of her team turned around to look at her.

“I don’t get what you girls see in him. He’s such an ass.”

“You take that back dog-breath.” Sakura hissed, “Sasuke-kun is perfect and mysterious. You wouldn’t get it.” 

“You’re right, I wouldn’t.” 

“Ugh.” Shikamaru groaned. Throwing his head back to gaze at the ceiling. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. We shouldn’t be a team, we have nothing in common, no common traits or abilities that are shared between the three of us and no interaction outside of the classroom. We make a horrible team, it’s almost as if the Hokage drew our names out of hats.” Sakura rolled that around inside of her head. That, while seemingly ludicrous, made sense. 

“Whose to say we weren’t.” She proposed. Instantly regretting it when Shikamaru turned his sharp, dark eyes at her. 

“Explain.” 

She huffed, blowing an irritating strand of hair out of her face. Once again she contemplated just hacking it all off and being done with it.

“Whose to say we weren’t drawn from a hat. What’s different from this year then the last?”

“The psychologist evaluations.” The Inuzuka provided. 

“Correct. Now if you think about it, the class was already clearly separated. We had the lower end of the class, who is obviously headed towards genin and chuunin manned teams, and the higher end, like team 10 and 8 who were already picked up. By process of being in the same room as the teams who were picked up by jounin, then it’s obvious where were heading. Now by all rights, you, Shikamaru, should be the next member of Ino-Shika-Chou, and you Kiba, should be on a tracking and capture based team with Shino and Hinata. That just leaves me, Sasuke-kun and Naruto-baka, whose closeness with the Hokage and seemingly unlimited chakra and stamina make him a perfect candidate for the last jounin team slot.”

“You’re right.” Nara said, sounding shocked.

Sakura flipped her hair, just like she’d practiced in the mirror earlier that day. This time her hair didn’t get caught in her fingertips, Sakura counted that as a success. “Of course I am.”

Kiba frowned. “But then why are we a team.”

“You said so earlier your self, Kiba. It’s the psych evaluations. They messed everything up.” The Nara said, frowning something. Shikamaru tuned to look at her, expression pinched.

“Don’t look at me.” Sakura said. Honestly indignant. She’d been at this act too long for a two-bit civilian psychologist and T&I reject to be able to even scratch the surface of her issues. “I passed with flying colours. I’m a perfectly well adjusted young adult.” She told them proudly.

“If you say Princess.”

“What the fuck did you just call me, half-breed?” Sakura hissed, the nickname bringing up too many memories for her comfort. Without meaning to she had rebutted him with the worst insult she could to an Inuzuka. 

“The fuck did you just call me Princess?” Kiba hissed, raising from his desk. 

“Call me that one more time half-breed and well see whose a fucking Princess.” Sakura stood herself, hunching her back slightly and loosening the muscles in her arms. Screw covert, if this bitch wanted it she would give it to him.

“Calm down, both of you.” The Nara hissed. His eyes were flickering back and forth between the two of them, seeing anything and everything that the two offered to him. Knowing when she had lost Sakura sat down again and huffed.

“He started it.”

“Yeah, while I’m ending it. Whether or not we were meant to be teammates we are now, so we’ll have to learn to get along.”

Sakura snorted. 

“Do you have something to say Haruno?” The Nara asked her, head tilted to the side. He looked like a wolf assessing his prey, a snake about to strike. 

“I do. For someone so smart you’re overlooking the bigger picture.” She gestured in a wide circle with her hand, discreetly slipping a senbon into one fist while she did so. Kiba still had yet to sit and Sakura trusted the mutt as far as she could throw him. Which, considering, was pretty far but she wasn’t about to let him know that.

“Please explain your genius then.” The Nara snaked. Sakura would make him eat his words.

“You asked for it. Like you said earlier, we were never meant to be a team. We’re too odd, none of our parts fit and none of them probably ever will. The only reason this pairing was probably ever approve was under the pre-tense that we’ll be disbanded in under a month. The Ino-Shika-Cho formation is too sacred to be completely messed with and the second child to the clan head is too politically important to throw away. The ninja world is full of dangers and it wouldn’t be the first time a dark horse took the lead. Even if the other teams are meant to exist and continue there are other Yamanaka’s and Akimichi children three years under us, as their clans tend to reproduce like hot cakes while you Nara’s remain rather sterile. Any of them would jump at the chance to become part of the formation. There are other uses for Inuzuka’s too, and plenty of tracking apprenticeships around the village. Any of them would be happy to have that nose and those ears.” She said, gesturing to Kiba with the hand clutching the senbon. His posture was becoming looser but she still wasn’t entirely comfortable with him. 

“That just leaves me. I have to graduate, the village has to be able to prove that civilians can graduate from the Academy and go on to be a functioning part of the village with a good job. But that doesn’t mean I have to have a dangerous job. I could become the missions desk leader, or the Archivist, something boring and safe that will prevent me from dying any time soon but still allow the Hokage to encourage the Civilian Council to encourage other parents to send their kids to the Academy. If she can do it, you can too!” Sakura said, mocking the high pitched whine of Kuzu-sensei, the girls only teacher who was known for her encouragement of the girls becoming ninja and then retiring after five years to have a family. 

“So, what are you saying?” Kiba asked her, he was sitting again so Sakura slipped the senbon back into the false skin under her right arm. The key for her house was in her left and two senbon were in her right.

“I’m saying, we’re the odd men out. The team that needs to be a team in order to fail. You’ll go on to be a tracker, Shikamaru will join T&I until the next line of Yamanaka’s and Akimichi’s are ready for the battle fields, and I’ll rot behind a desk like some glorified trophy.”

Kiba whistled. “Jesus you’re actually a really dark person aren’t you?”

“But smart! Good deduction Sakura-chan!” The voice came out of nowhere. Panicking Sakura pulled both senbon out from the flap of her arm and fired one and then another on the back swing, a centimetre off centre in case he dodged lightly. Kiba rocked from his seat and got into a crouch like formation and the Nara’s body had tensed, hands coming up in their signature seal, but no chakra had been pumped threw yet.

The grey haired man at the front of the classroom whistled, hand holding two quivering senbon in-between his fingers. He was dressed in a jounin outfit, with a mask covering the lower half of his face and a Konoha headband disseting one eye, most likely to cover up a horrendous injury or scar.

“Good throw, if I was a little slower I might not have caught those.” He praised her, putting the two senbon into his pocket. “You’ll get these back when you learn not to be so jumpy. If I’d been a civilian you could have really hurt me Sakura-chan.” The grey haired man reprimanded. His voice was light and teasing but Sakura could detect a hard note of steel underneath that foolish exterior, it made goosebumps break out across her flesh. 

“Now, my first impression of you is. Hmm. Just hmm. Meet me at the roof in 5 minuets, and hurry little ones I don’t like to be kept waiting.” With that the silver haired jounin was engulfed in a dramatic poof of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the jounin was gone, having taken with him her two senbon.

Shikamaru was having an interesting day, to put it mildly. His day had started as it always did, his mother yelling in his ear to wake up, his dad asleep at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front of him. He’d be too late to eat so he’d be hustled out the door by his mother, barely having time to slip on his shoes before he was pushed into the street. Choji was waiting for him, as he usually was, and Ino was quick to catch up to the two of them, berating them for how slow they were being. It was nice, it was peaceful. The only problem was that it didn’t say that way.

His day was quickly becoming troublesome. And Shikamaru didn’t particularly care for troublesome situations.

The Academy rooftop was sunny, the sky was a peaceful blue free of clouds. Shikamaru frowned, he couldn’t even distract himself by cloud watching. What a day this was shaping up to be.

“Well, it seems you’re all here, and right on time too.” The jounin in front of him smiled, his eyes crinkling at the sides in what appeared to be kindness. Shikamaru wasn’t fooled.

This teacher was younger then the two that had picked up Team 8 and Team 10 earlier. Despite what the unruly mop of grey hair the man sported might suggest, his appearance was rather youthful. No part of his body was showing except for one dark grey eye, his hands were covered with thick black gloves and his standard issue sandals had been swapped out for a pair of similar, but closed toed, boots in the same shade of black as the rest of him. The only thing to distinguish him as a ninja of the village was the headband dissecting one of his eyes and the standard issue green jounin flank jacket and red clan symbols displayed on the outer part of each arm. They were bright red with black lines swirling inside of them, almost eye like. Shikamaru had been forced to learn all of the major and minor clan symbols, both past and present, by his father in the case that he became the next clan head. As such he recognized the symbol as one of the Hatake clan, one which only had one remaining member located in the village.

“You’re Hatake Kakashi, correct?” Shikamaru asked, ignoring the steely eyed glint from Sakura beside him. After the almost altercation in the classroom he’d taken it upon himself to sit between Sakura and Kiba, least they get into another fight with each other.

“Oh ho, you are a smart one aren’t you?” The jounin said, his body language was relaxed, but Shikamaru could see the slight tension in his hands that spoke of an inability to never truly relax, even in the presence of three children who should be almost unrecognizable threats on this mans radar.

“You’re lovely little teammate is indeed correct. My name is Hatake Kakashi, a jounin of this village but please call me Kakashi-sensei. Now how about we do a little ice-breaker, hmm? Everyone loves ice breakers. Now, why don’t you each tell me your name, your likes and dislikes and what you dream of for your future.” Shikamaru fought the urge to sigh and take a nap. He hated icebreakers, it seemed like every time he turned around someone was trying to get him to do an icebreaker at this school. He didn’t understand why, wasn’t part of being a ninja being unable to be recognized? Only those who were super boisterous or arrogant where remembered, case and point the Sannin. 

“Inuzuka, why don’t you go first?” Kiba was watching Kakashi-sensei with a sharp intensity, head cocked to the side. The ninken on his head had followed his actions, tiny head cocked to the same side as his partner.

“My name is Kiba Inuzuka, I like meat and Akamaru, I dislike when my mom wakes me up and dangles me out the window. My dream for the future is to one day make my sister proud.”

“Good start, pineapple head, how about you next.” Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, it was clear that the man knew his name but just didn’t care enough to use it.

“My name is Shikamaru Nara, I like naps and cloud watching, I hate being made to wake up and run, my dream is.” He paused, what was his dream? “To grow old and live a normal, simple life.”

“Hmm, not bad. Finally pinkie, you’re last.” Shikamaru turned towards her, watching as a brief emotion flickered across her face before a wide smile filtered onto her lips.

“My name is Sakura Haruno, I like reading and Sasuke-kun, I dislike running and dirt, my dream for the future is to marry a certain someone.” Here she giggled lightly, a blush taking over her cheeks. Shikamaru would have believed it too, just hours earlier, but now things didn’t add up. Sure Sakura was known as a book smart fangirl, same as most of the girls in his graduating year, and was prone to temper but was easily discouraged, those where the simple facts about her. But if all of that was true, then why had she made it this far. Shikamaru knew the graduation statistics, same as everyone else. It was rare that a civilian graduated, rarer still if they had such a flimsy personality. He was missing something here and he didn’t like it.

It appeared that Kakashi-sensei had reached the same conclusion that he had. His face was pinched, though his eye smile still hadn’t changed from when they’re first started their introductions.

“It seems like I have an interesting group this year. Let’s see how long you stay this way. What’s not well known is that their’s one final test before you can really graduate and join a team, it’s my test. If you pass it you can call yourselves my cute little students. If you fail then you’ll be sent back to the Academy for another year, if you fail again then you’ll be sent straight into the genin corps where you’ll most likely live a life of mediocrity. For your final test you’ll meet me, tomorrow at six am, at training ground number 7. I won’t tell you what kind of test it is, just that it has a 33% fail rate. Any questions?”

Shakily Sakura held up her hand, she gulped nervously.

“Sakura-chan?”

“Is their anything we can do to be prepared for tomorrow Kakashi-sensei?” She asked, her voice was a high whine that grated on Shikamaru’s nerves, just like Ino’s did when she got particularly agitated. Still something seemed off.

“Yes their is. Don’t eat tomorrow or you’ll throw up.” With that Kakashi-sensei disappeared in a poof of smoke. When it cleared all that was left on the roof was three awkward pre-teens.

The walk back down from the rooftop was quiet. No one had anything to say, nor did anybody want to say anything. 

They were soon outside, the sun hadn’t even moved an inch from when they started their descent down the stairs but the day felt infinitely longer. The three of them turned towards each other, each of them unsure of what to say. 

“So.” Kiba started. “Do you guys want to go like. Get anything to eat or something?” The pup on Kiba’s head yipped in agreement. Sakura couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across her face at the sight of something so cute and tiny, even if his paw size and bone structure implied that he’d grow until he was the size of a small warhorse. 

“I mean. I could eat.” Sakura said, and shrugged. She might not like these guys, nor would she be teammates with them for very long, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t get a meal or two together.

Shikamaru sighed. “Fine. Troublesome.”

“Where do you guys want to go?” Kiba asked.

“Anywhere but ramen, can’t even look at the stuff if I’m honest.” Sakura replied, face scrunching up. Honestly she didn’t know how Naruto did it every day of his life.

“I know a good udon place,” Shikamaru suggested. “Choji’s oldest cousin owns it.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Yeah, udon’s fine.” 

With that the three of them where off. 

The walk there was quiet, no one said a word outside of Shikamaru’s occasional grunts of directions. Around them the rest of the village was bustling back and forth, Sakura watched with interest as a mother tugged the hand of her child, the child was red faced and crying tugging uselessly in the arm of her much stronger mother. 

“I hate you!” The child screamed, voice muffled over the hustle and bustle of the market. The mother simply sighed, apparently quiet use to her child’s outbursts, and paused to scoop the child into her arms. Instantaneously the child quieted, blotchy red face dying down as the upset child let out one last sniffle of contempt. 

“Sorry mommy.” The child said. The woman only nodded before continuing on her way, this time the child clutched in her arms. 

Still walking with her teammates, Sakura idly wondered what that was like. She had no real parental memories of either of her parents. Her mother was cold and distant on the best of days, a woman not fit for any sort of childrearing. For the first six years of her life, she only saw her mother on the other side of the door of her families compound, she only knew it was her mother because the caretaker would point her out every time she walked past. “That’s your mother Sakura-chan!” The woman would excitedly say, clapping her pale, skeletal hands together in excitement. “If you win I bet she’d be so glad to see you again!” Even from the small window view she’d have of her mother, pale fathers illuminated under the sun, Sakura knew that this woman could care less whether she won or not. She was an obligation to this woman, a necessary part of her marriage contract to her husband, Sakura would later learn. No part of the contract stipulated she had to live, just that she had to be born.

Quickly the new team arrived at the udon restaurant. It was quiet at this time of the day, if Sakura had to guess she’d say it was about 2:30 so the restaurant was in it’s lull period between the lunch and supper rushes. The hostess who met them quickly guided them to a back table and handed them their menus.

“I’ll be back shortly.” She chirped, smiling at them before disappearing into the bowels of the restaurant. 

She gazed down at her menu, quickly deciding on what she wanted before she put it to the side. Across from her Shikamaru did the same, beside him Kiba seemed to be struggling slightly more but a firm ‘yip’ from Akamaru decided it for him. 

The hostess returned with a pot of tea and three cups, and a small silver bowl filled with water for Akamaru that she placed on the table alongside the tea. She took their orders before taking their menus and leaving.

Sakura idly sipped at her tea and contemplated what to say to her teammates. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, quite the opposite in fact, but she felt like someone needed to say something.

“What do you think the test tomorrow is going to be?” Kiba asked, thankfully talking before she had to.

“I’m not sure,” she answered. “Shikamaru?”

“Hmm. I can’t say for sure but I’ve heard rumours from my dad and his friends. They joke that Kakashi is never going to take a team, apparently this isn’t the first time the Hokage has tried to make him teach the next generation.” 

“So, he doesn’t want to teach, why make him then?” 

“Well, he’s the last of the Hatake clan isn’t he?” Sakura asked, continuing when Shikamaru nodded his head. “The Hokage is probably hoping that if he can get Kakashi-sensei to connect with this generation it might encourage him to have kids and continue his families lineage. Kakashi-sensei still looks pretty young from what I can see, 24, 25 tops, so he still has several years to start a family. He won’t have them, however, if he dies.”

“Correct.” Shikamaru said, and Kiba nodded along with him.

Their was a brief lull as the waitress brought their food out, beef udon for her and Kiba, miso udon for Shikamaru and a tiny plate of grilled chicken for Akamaru. 

“So he must make the test as hard as he can without it being impossible.” Kiba supplied before slurps of the soft noodles.

“But what could that be is the question.” Shikamaru tilted the bowl up and slurped down his booth, sighing when the warm liquid reached his stomach.

“I have no idea. And their’s no one we can ask.” It was a strict, but un-written rule that teams couldn’t ask past teams or failed teams what the test was about. Very rarely did jounin change their tests, generally jounin only took on a handful of teams and even then half of them tended to fail. If it was true that the Hokage was trying to make Kakashi take on a team for many years now, with little success, it meant that jounin probably made the test as hard as he could without it being bluntly unfair.

“It’s like the final boss level.” Kiba supplied, elaborating when both Sakura and Shikamaru shot him confused looks. “When I’m good my sister lets me play video games, they make the games progressively harder but never impossible. The harder a boss level is the better the rewards will be, so by that way of thinking the final boss gives you the most amount of rewards for defeating them. Kakashi-sensei is the final boss of jounin sensei’s, he’s the one that everyone wants to beat, or in this case wants to learn from, but can’t because he’s so strong. We just have to find a way to beat the final boss.”

“Is he really the strongest though?” Sakura asked. She wasn’t going to argue that he was strong, she’d spent time with him after all and even from their brief encounter she could tell that he could snap her in half with the same amount of effort it took him to chew a grape, but was he really the strongest?

“I’m pretty sure. The Hatake and Inuzuka clans were really close, our founding history indicates that the founding spirit of the Inuzuka and Hatake clans were brother and sister respectively, so we had a lot of interaction over the years. Whenever Kakashi comes to my mom for vet checks for his summons she always tells me that he was the strongest Hatake ever produced, and that he’d be stronger too if he stuck with traditions.”

“Brother and sister?” Shikamaru questioned.

“Yeah, the Hatake and Inuzuka clans are split from wolf spirits. The brother was the founder of the Inuzuka and the sister was the founder of the Hatake linage. I’m not sure about the history of the Hatake clan exactly, but the Inuzuka history states that the siblings fell in love with humans. The sister ate a human to gain their appearance and strength and the brother bathed in the blood of samurais that had fallen in battle which allowed him to gain human speech. From their the clans branched off.” 

Sakura hummed, it would explain the similarities between the Inuzuka and Hatake clans. Both clans were supposed guardians of the old spirits. The Hatake clan watched over the Northern wolf spirits and the Inuzuka watched over the Southern, as such both clan compounds were located on the far reaches of Konoha, with the Hatake compound in the north and the Inuzuka in the south, with their land backed only by the forests and mountains that surrounded Konoha. The other two boarders of Konoha were occupied by the Nara and Uchiha compounds. The Uchiha boarded the East, with their clans walls ending just before the main gates of the city, and the Nara’s occupied the Western area of Konoha. Their were many other clan compound, with two others belonging to the Akimichi and Yamanaka, but they were primarily wide spread with no true compound, though most of their houses could be found located in the city centre, close to the Nara district.

They finished the rest of their meals in silence and received the bill. After paying the four of them left the restaurant and made their way towards their own houses. Shikamaru and Kiba both headed in the same direction while Sakura headed towards the civilian district which was to near the abandoned Uchiha complex. It was arranged this way to keep the police force closer to the civilians so their would be a shorter delay time between receiving calls and arriving at the person’s home. 

“I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow?” Sakura said, as the three of them made to part ways.

“Yeah, six am at the bridge right?” Kiba asked.

“Yup.” 

Their was a moment where no one said anything, each starring at each other and wondering what needed to be say. Sakura wouldn’t deny that it was awkward. They were never suppose to be a team, they were never meant to have to work as a unit, as far as Sakura could remember they had only ever briefly talked to each other in class and only when they were forced to, never of their own violation. The last thing any of them expected was to be placed on a team together.

“Well. Bye.” Sakura said, raising her hand to wave and then dropping it. She turned and walked towards home. It was going to be a long week.

That night Sakura dreamt of the Umi’s. She hadn’t thought about them in a long time, not since she left her families compound, but that night they came to her. 

She was underground again, occupying her favourite corner of the cells where she couldn’t be seen by the other children. They were all clustered together playing a rudimentary game of Go by drawing the board and pieces with the spoons from breakfast in the dirt. They weren’t allowed forks and knives. Too young, the Umi’s would tell them. Even back then Sakura had been smart and she knew that it was because they didn’t trust them not to attack each other with them. One of the Umi’s broke away from the group and approached her. Kneeling down so they were eye level the Umi looked at her. The Umi’s were twins as far as Sakura could tell, both with wide black eyes and white hair that dragged on the ground after them. No matter how much their hair dragged, however, their hair always stayed crystal white, unlike Sakura’s whose white hair had turned muddy brown on the edges from one of the cousins pushing her down and rubbed it in the dirt. 

“Why don’t you play with the other children Sakura?” They asked her. Sakura wasn’t sure what gender the Umi’s where or if they were even any gender at all, their bodies were perfectly straight underneath their robes and the underground had robed them of any colour or form. 

“I don’t like them.” Sakura told the Umi, flinching slightly when they reached out with their skeletal finders, flesh pulled tight over their knuckle bones to gentle par her hair. Underneath their hand her hair lost the dirt that had embedded itself in it, it fell away like crumbling pottery until only the shinning white colour of her natural hair was left. 

“But Sakura, they’re your family, you might not like them now but in the future you could be the one in charge of the remembering them.” The Umi smiled. It was a bloodless smile, the one Sakura often saw herself doing in the mirror even now.

“Remember them child.” The Umi said, before taking Sakura’s hand and leading her to where the other five children, who occupied this small space, were playing. “Because you might be the Survivor.”

Sakura woke all at once, sitting up in bed with her sheets sticking to her from sweat. It was early morning, the delicate beams of sun just starting to lighten her room from behind the flimsy white curtains. She jumped out of bed and threw open the curtains. Outside the sky was lightening and a couple of drunks where just making their way home from the bars, staggering with each step. Their were no bars on her windows. Their were no other kids playing Go on the floor. Their was no Umi’s, standing in the corner, smiling their bloodless smiles. 

Shakily Sakura got out of bed and got dressed for today. She slipped on her tights and took her red dress out of the closet. Turning it in her hands she traced her fingers over the circle in the middle, her clans insignia. It was relatively simple, easy to stitch the Umi’s use to joke, just a single white loop, with an empty inside. To her clan it represented the brother’s hearth in which they were all forged from wood and metal. Whenever she looked at it all she could remember was the first time she saw her mother, dressed in red, face pale and hair just as pale as she walked the clan compounds courtyard the only view the tiny little barred window that resided in the underground, allowed. She wouldn’t have even known this strange woman to be her mother had the Umi’s not pointed it out to her.

It made her sick.

With an ill stomach she shrugged it on. It was not a dress made for battle, the fabric was tight and flimsy, with no pockets or protection. It was a dress made for the vain ones, the ninja who chose looks over practicality. She was not like that, not by a long shot. But that was who the other’s thought Sakura was and if she changed she would stand out. Sakura had quickly learned that it was not good to stand out. Standing out meant death. Standing out meant attention, and it was always from the person you didn’t want it from.

That’s why she was the way she was, Sakura thought as she painstakingly brushed each and every knot from her long hair. It was easier to follow what the other kids where doing during the day, fawning over Sasuke, being book smart but horrible at all the physical aspects. It was easy to get over-looked that way, as soon as she cried for the first time during a spar the teachers wrote her off. The only downside was that the other kids mercilessly bullied her, it hurt when she was younger but as she got older it got easier. The only time in her life that she considered sticking out was when she became friends with Ino, but that fad quickly passed when Ino broke her heart. She learned her lesson then, learned that it was easier to be alone then to be with others.

Sakura finished getting ready and headed downstairs. It was 5:30. Gazing at the cabinets she contemplated eating a nutrient bar but decided against it. Even if Kakashi-sensei hadn’t been serious about them eating breakfast she didn’t want to disobey an order by a superior just yet. 

The walk to the training ground was uneventful. This early in the morning Sakura might as well have been the only person in the village, occasionally she’d see someone passed out in their own sick in a nearby alley or a bleary eyed baker on their way to start their bread. Sakura waved at Nazimo-san, the elderly man who still got up at 5:00 every morning to run around Konoha, he was sweating and smiling, joyfully waving back at her without even pausing in his motions.

Eventually she made her way to training ground 7, by the time she reached it the sun was fully out from behind the trees but was still low hanging. Shikamaru and Kiba were already there, Shikamaru was fast asleep in the middle of the red bridge that provided a safe way across from the violently rushing river that dissected the land. It led into a large lake at one end of the property, and the river funnelled out somewhere in the distance. Despite the name training ground 7 was actually relatively close to training ground 44, or the forbidden forest. The river probably flowed straight into the woods their and fuelled the continued growth of the obnoxiously large wildlife that lived here. There were rumours that training ground 44 had been the first Hokage’s personal training ground when he was still learning how to control his wood release jutsu. As such the trees located there were said to be mutated. The mutation that they had caused a larger output of O2 during photosynthesis, the result was that the vertebrates and invertebrates in the forest grew 12x larger then regular organisms. The spiders in the forest where the size of horses, the centipedes the size of ox-carts and so forth. The Academy had taken a day trip their once. It had not been fun. 

Sakura hoped up on the red railing of the bridge and watched as Kiba played an elaborate game of fetch with Akamaru, she spent the first ten minuets trying to fallow the rules of the game but quickly gave up right around the time Akamaru fished a red pebble out of the river and Kiba stripped to his shorts and climbed the closest tree in return. Instead she began to focus on her breathing, closing her eyes she felt the world around her, she breathed in and then out. In and then out. In, out. 

Eventually she fell into a meditative like state, her breathing in tune with the ruffling of the wind, the movement of the water, the sound of the trees. Her chakra gradually began to creep out, much like a shy cat, playfully ruffling Shikamaru’s hair and tugging gently on Akamaru’s tail as it expanded. The younger pup sneezed when her chakra tickled his nose, she could feel the responding laugh from her chakra, it’s curious nature peaked by the small animal. She could feel nature around her like this, she counted the fish that swam under the bridge and the bugs that crawled under the grass nearby. As she began to send her chakra out further and further she felt more and more, the roots under the ground, the small animals burrowing in nearby trees, and as she got to the very edge of the practice field she felt a much larger presence in a tree nearby, not even bothering to disguise itself. Her chakra, the curious thing that it was, poked at the other signal, inviting it out to play even as she chastises it for doing something so reckless. 

The other chakra seemed shocked for a minuet before tentatively returning the greeting. This chakra was strong, it was a force of nature filled with crackling energy and barely contained spirit. It felt wild and free, but at the same time sad and sick. Where the other was suppose to be light and playful it was slow and sad, like the weight of the world was gradually pulling it down. Sakura’s chakra gently patted it before retreating back to her, extended past it’s limits. The other’s chakra followed for a brief second before reluctantly returning to it’s host body. 

Gradually awareness started to return to her, her hearing coming back first, the sound of the bubbling water and dancing tress returning, then touch, the heat of the sun and the rough wood under her fingers, finally sight came back to her. Slowly she pulled her eyes open, surprised to see that Kiba and Shikamaru were both staring at her.

“Can I help you?” She asked them.

“What was that?” Kiba asked, turning his head to the side, he looked like a curious pup that had been told to sit without really knowing what that was.

“I was meditating.” She explained shortly, heat raising to her cheeks. She wasn’t sure what she had to be embarrassed about, only that the looks they were giving her made her feel embarrassed. 

“That didn’t feel like meditating.” Shikamaru added, his eyes were squinted at her like he was trying to figure her out.

“It was my version.” She sniffed. “But, I guess I can teach you if you like.” Sakura offered this grudgingly, she didn’t truly want to but these were to be her teammates, and teamwork was important after all.

“I would like that.”

“Same!” Kiba replied with a grin.

“Alright,” She sighed. “I need to explain to you the theory behind it first. It’s not like what you do at the Academy, it’s more. Personal.” She decided. “You’re chakra is both part of you and different, it’s the wild side of you. Some would say it’s a different spirit entirely and that’s why we can only have so much, because it’s hard to share one body with two souls. That’s why sometimes it doesn’t want to listen, it doesn’t want to be restrained and perfected like we would like it too, if it didn’t have this personality then everybody in the world would have perfect chakra control. Instead it depends on how in tuned you are with it, how much you accept it as a part of you. It will never be perfect because you are two separate entities, two separate things and two things can never perfectly come together. No matter how much we’d like to think we can. Not without losing ourselves in the process.” Here Sakura paused, letting the words wash over her teammates, letting them mull over the idea.

“Now. We’re going to start off simply. We’re going to shake it’s hand.” Here Sakura closed her eyes, just like she’d done for the first time so long ago. “Close your eyes and just breath. Listen to my voice and the voice of nature around you. Feel the bridge underneath you, feel the wind on your skin and the sun heating you flesh. Feel that and then let it go.” She gave them a moment to go over this, let them relax into her words and relax into the world around them. “Now listen, listen to my voice and listen to the wind in the tress, the water under the bridge, the small insects buzzing in the grass. Let that go, let the sounds wash over you and let them go in the same breath. Breath with the sounds, breath with my voice.” She opened her eyes to watch their breathing, waiting for the point in which their breathing perfectly matched up with each other, and with nature around them.

“Their’s going to be something inside of you, it will seem small but it’s not, it’s just condensed to fit into such a small space with you. Poke it, play with it. Mould it with you just like you’re shaking it’s hand. Let it know that you mean it no harm.” She say Shikamaru jump when he touched it for the first time, within her, her chakra reached out and assessed him, making sure the meeting was going okay. Deep within him his chakra was poking back at him. It was playful, not malicious, teasing and ruffling his hair with no ill intent. She gently drew back so as not to draw attention to herself, and focused on Kiba. He seemed to be having a harder time. His chakra was sleepy and slow to react. She probed it lightly to get it started. The chakra seemed to sigh before stretching it’s metaphorical legs and reaching a hand forward to greet Kiba. The boy smiled, face blossoming into a found grin as he pestered his chakra much like an overeager pup would chase it’s mother. His chakra sighed before ruffling his hair. On the outside his hair ruffled with the wind.

Slowly Sakura pulled her chakra back into herself, smiling when it playful bid her goodbye before curling up into a ball at the centre of her core again.

“This is the hardest part. It’s important not to let go too fast, it can make you sick. You must let the world come back to you gradually. Begin with you’re hearing, let nature back in. Let the sounds come to you once more, become one with nature once more. Let the bugs buzz in your ears and the trees sing to you once more.” She watched them carefully, noting when the sound came back to Shikamaru, Kiba struggled slightly more but it appeared that his chakra was guiding him, helping him back into himself. “Now, let the feeling back into your limbs. Feel the heat on your skin and the sweat from your sandals on your feet. Feel the bite of the wood from the bridge and the playful ruffle of the wind.” She saw Kiba flex his fingers and Shikamaru wiggle his toes, feeling returning to them. They’d be tingling at first as slowly the nerves began to recognize them once more as a part of them, but the more they did this the better they’d get at transitioning back and forth. “Finally open your eyes, slowly,” she hissed as Kiba made to open his eyes quickly. “Just focus on one centimetre at a time, one image at at time while your brain takes it all back in.” Blinking Kiba and Shikamaru came back to themselves fully. They were gazing at their hands in amazement. 

“That was so cool!” Kiba said, wonder shinning in his voice. “How did you learn that?”

“Yeah, that wasn’t basic meditation.” Shikamaru chimed in, though he seemed to be more focused on his hands then on her.

“I learned it from my…. Guardians.” She said, remembering the first time she’d done this. The Umi’s had guided her with patients and love as they sat in the cell. The walls had been decorated with blood and the room smelled of gradual decay. It had been hard then, hard not to throw up as she let go of the world around her.

She felt a swish of wind behind her, different from the wild wind that creased her face and arms. Slowly she turned around and, standing on water like the cocky son-of-a bitch that he was, was Kakashi-sensei. He had a distant look in his one viable eye, face slightly scrunched up underneath his mask.

In a voice that was both light and heavy at the same time he said “Team 7, pass.”


	2. Who needs safely when you have a family?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A team is passed, a family is built, trouble is had, and the only one having any fun at this point is Akamaru.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So like...... You guys were so sweet!!!! You encouraged me to get this edited and thus here's the second chapter waaaaayyyyyy ahead of schedule.
> 
> Chapter 3 is being written but it's no where near close to done, it's gonna be fun but probably won't be out for a couple of months so sorry about that!
> 
> But here's chapter 2!!! and it's good!!! (I think) so enjoy :)
> 
> Also, disclaimer, don't own any of this or any characters nor do I make profit from it.
> 
> \--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakashi was late. 

The meeting had already started when he entered, waving at the Hokage in the front of the room. He gave his customary eye smile, silently snickering when the Hokage just waved him off with a sigh. He joined the back of the room, leaning against the wall and pulling out the customary orange book he carried. Kakashi notices Cat was on duty today and tapped him a quick greeting on the spine of his book.

“And that’s why Team 6 was unable to pass this year. I would like to put forth a recommendation for them all to be sent back to the Academy for the year for further training or to be sent straight into the genin corps with no team leader.” For the life of him Kakashi couldn’t remember the name of the chuunin who was talking, just that he was an old candidate for Team 7. His team had failed spectacularly, if he remembered correctly, and had recommended for them to be sent back to the Academy. Kakashi didn’t keep an active eye on all of the genin that the Hokage had tried to pass off on him over the years but it was good to see that one of them had made it higher then genin.

“Next is Team 7, with proposed leader Hatake Kakashi. The candidates are as follows, Haruno Sakura, Nara Shikamaru and Inuzuka Kiba.” The Hokage’s secretary announced. She was a pretty thing, mousy with large eye and larger assets. He’d heard rumours from the Hokage’s ANBU guards that she was as crazy as she was pretty and the only reason that the Hokage kept her around was because of said assets.

Kakashi snapped his book closed and pocketed it. The ANBU in the corner and the jounin in the front snapped to attention like Kakashi had yelled at them. He couldn’t blame them, really, it was rare that he closed his book. Rarer still for him to be serious about anything.

“Team 7, as led by me, has passed. I will now be taking over their training for an indefinite amount of time. I request the exclusive use of training ground 7 as a result.” The room seemed thick with shock. Kakashi breathed the scent, part of him took reverence in the slight scent of fear that the room took on. 

“Are you sure Kakashi?” The Hokage asked, his voice seemed strained. Kakashi considered feeling bad for the man, but he’d been too long in the system to feel anything but apathetic regard for the third Hokage. He’d seen too much, had done too many misdeeds and held too many secrets for his leader to be anything but a government official now.

“Positive Hokage-sama, they passed fair and square.” With trepidation the Hokage carefully scribbled down his teams pass on the paper. Once he was finished Kakashi took his book back out of his pocket and began to read half heartedly; giggling quietly to himself every once and a while just to bother the two genin in front of him. 

The meeting concluded without trouble after the shock that Kakashi provided. Three other teams had passed, Team 8, a chuunin led Team 9 and Team 10, with Teams 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 being sent back to the Academy or being sent straight into the work force.

“Kakashi,” the Hokage called as meeting concluded and the gathered forces gradually began to disperse. “Could you stay for a moment.” The old Hokage smiled. To an outside observer it might have seemed friendly and reassuring. Possibly fatherly. Kakashi had been around a long time though, longer then most and much longer then anyone else would have thought that he’d survived to, so he knew that the simple smile that the Hokage provided was much more then what it seemed. 

The rest of the gathered ninja gradually filed out. As he passed Asuma shot him a concerned look. He, more then most, knew what really lay under the hat. 

Kakashi kept his book out and crept closer to the Hokage, standing ten meters back from the desk as was the proper procedure. 

“Are you sure about this decision Kakashi?” The Hokage asked, not bothering with pleasantries. 

“They passed fair and square Hokage-sama. I wouldn’t pass them if they didn’t earn it.” 

Which was true, as odd as it was. Kakashi had been perfectly prepared to fail them, especially if the bickering yesterday in the classroom was an indication. However he’d been supposed to watch Haruno guide her teammates threw a rather complicated and convoluted method of meditation. He’d seen something then, some faint spark that had been missing in all of the teams he’d tested previously. It was never about his test; in fact the waiting time was part of the test. When Kakashi said that the test started at 6am he never lied it was just that no team before them had passed that portion. If the team could communicate and plan, or at the very least show some form of cooperation and team work then he’d long decided to skip the combat portion of the test and pass them. If they just sat their and silence or argued for the four hours before he ‘showed’ up then he moved on to what he fondly called the Bell Test. If they didn’t pass that he’d reveal one of the two true nature’s of the test, team work. If knowing that they still didn’t pass the third portion, which showcased his second requirement, disobedience, then the teams failed. Up until this point no team had passed any of his test stages or shown either of the foundations he was looking for in a team, trust and independent thinking. If the teams didn’t trust each other they wouldn’t get far, but if they didn’t show any kind of self thought and confidence then they would be dead before their sixteenth birthday.

Somehow this rage tag group of rather mismatched children had shown something that all of the others before them had failed to do. As a result, they’d passed.

“You must have seen something that I did not, then Kakashi. For that, I apologize. But it’s not too late to retract your decision. It might be easier in the long run if I assigned them a new sensei. Or perhaps they would prefer internships. The Nara would do well in T&I and the ANBU tracking team just had an opening.” The Hokage smiled, his wrinkles made the look seem harmless. The words, however, were anything but.

“Ah, but Hokage-sama a man can’t go back on his word. In this line of work it’s all we really have left.” 

“Well that’d true Kakashi, it would be much easier for everyone involved if you just let this team go. You can continue on with your work for several more months and after the chuunin exams the Uchiha boy would probably appreciate your mentorship if you’d be so kind as to offer it to him.”

“Fugaku would roll in his grave if he heard you say those words Hokage-sama.” In life the Uchiha’s dislike for him had been well known. It radiated from the head downwards; it had gotten so bad that many Uchiha’s would outright refuse to work with him or disobey his captaincy in the rare instances they were forced to work together. It wasn’t a trait that Kakashi minded, in fact he encouraged it, but when it got other members of his team killed that’s when he started to take it personally. 

“I’m sure given the circumstances he would appreciate you working with his son.”

Kakashi snorted, clearly they were remembering the man quiet differently.

“We’ll see how my team fairs Hokage-sama.” 

The Hokage sighed. “If you’re positive then Kakashi. It’s been noted that the team doesn’t have a specialization, however, nothing seemed to fit at the time.” Outside the clouds covered the sun. Threw the big windows of his office the shade covered the Hokage’s face, shrouding it in darkness. Kakashi didn’t shiver, he’d seen too much for that, but a bolt of unease shot threw him. The Hokage pulled some papers out from his desk and shuffled them, before picking up his pen.

“ANBU Team 11 Delta 7-3, has recently retired from duty. That means their’s a new opening for a wet-works team within the ranks. With you as the leader I’m sure that you’d be more then capable of helping them fulfill their selected profession.” The Hokage smiled. Quickly writing something down on the paper in front of him. Kakashi didn’t need to see the paper to know that the Hokage had just signed his teams death warrant.

“If you ever change your mind about your team Kakashi I’m sure Sasuke-kun would thrive under your tutelage.” 

Sensing the dismissal for what it was Kakashi left the office. Underneath his skin his chakra was throbbing in a way he hadn’t felt since his father’s death. It curled within him, pacing back and forth like an anxious wolf. It wanted to attack, to feel the blood of the one who dared to threaten him under it’s fangs, to feel the crunch of bone and watch the life drain from the eyes of the one who threatened what was his.

For the first time in a long time Kakashi felt like a true Hatake. Rather then shy away from it like he was use to, he embraced it. Feeling the wolf in his soul howl Kakashi grinned underneath his mask. Though his mouth was not visible the receptionist at her desk dove for cover, ducking underneath the paperwork in a poor attempt to hid from his seemingly never-ending rage. 

If the Hokage wanted to make his team a wet-works team he’d damn make sure they were the best wet-works team that this village had ever seen.

The sky was dark when Kakashi made his way to the Nara compound. At this time of night most people would be safely tucked in bed, fast asleep. But he knew that this man wouldn’t be. Kakashi didn’t even bother trying to make his way into the compound, just flared his chakra enough that the gate surrounding the compound felt it. The gate seemed to flare, reading and sensing him as a threat and alerting the head of the clan residing inside. Kakashi was a Hatake, a part he’d ignored most of his life and was just now beginning to embrace again, and as such he was a wolf, a wild wolf of the Northern mountain. The Nara’s were of the deer spirit so his presence was considered a direct threat no matter his intentions. As such he couldn’t even enter the clan’s compounds without a direct escort and invitation.

It was warm tonight, the air was almost soft. Fragrances of flowers and pollen danced in the air in the final dance of the season. Summer would start soon and the children that resulted from this fragrant dace would soon come to fruition. 

Shikaku did not keep him waiting long. Emerging from the shadows like a spectre of the night, the Nara head was dressed down in a light dress shirt and pants. His eyes were squinted in the dark, but Kakashi knew better then most that it wasn’t because of inability to see in the dark, or even sleepiness that most would be experiencing this time of night, but rather he was analyzing Kakashi taking in each and every detail that the jounin allowed his body language to show ,and some that he didn’t.

The Nara head sighed. “Come in then. It seems this will be a long night. Troublesome.” 

Absently the clan head waved at the gates. Reluctantly the gates opened for them, permitting Kakashi entry. As soon as he was threw the gates slammed shut behind him, nearly hitting him in the ass. He chuckled, it was good to see the gates were as spirited as ever. 

The Nara head led him down the path, past several small residential buildings, towards his residence. It was at the very back of the Nara clan’s property, bordered on both sides and the back by thick, dark trees. These trees only grew on this side of the village, and were considered to be quite unusual. They were a type of pine, with long, prickly needles that drew blood as easy as one might lose hair, and had thick black bark that covered their large bodies like armour. Kakashi could see white, fleeting bodies in his peripheral vision. They moved like ghosts in the night, silent on hoofed feet. They were the largest creatures that resided in these forests, the Nara deer, famed for their healing properties and their violent nature. Only the Nara could approach them without threat of death, and even then it could be touch or go.

Shikaku led him into the house, it was silent and dark. His wife was most likely asleep upstairs. A quick pulse of chakra revealed that Shikamaru was also upstairs, peacefully sleeping in what Kakashi assumed was his bedroom.

Shikaku gestured for him at the low table before disappearing. He returned again clutching a bottle of sake and two cups. One cup he set down in front of Kakashi and the other he set down in front of his seat. He poured a liberal amount in both before setting the bottle down in the centre of the table and taking his seat. 

Kakashi left his cup untouched as Shikaku quickly downed his, filled it up, then downed it again. Kakashi was sorely tempted to drink his, to feel the burn of the rice wine as it poured down his throat and then the heat of the alcohol as it pooled in his stomach, but unfortunately he needed a clear head, something that alcohol wouldn’t offer him.

“Alright.” Shikaku wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve, posture taking on a lazy sprawl as he half draped himself over the table. “Talk.”

Kakashi sighed. He’d had this conversation earlier with Hana, Kiba’s older sister. Their mother was unavailable, out on a long term mission with no solid return date. She’d been gone for a month already and likely wouldn’t be back for several more by the sounds of it. Hana had been justifiably angered at the situation her little brother had found himself in, and threw no fault of his own at that. Unfortunately her anger meant little. Perhaps if she was actually the clan head, and not her absent mother, then she would actually be able to speak out against the Hokage and mean it, but she was not and wouldn’t be until her mother was either killed in action, killed from disease or retired. Hana’s father, who Kakashi had briefly known on the battlefields of the third war, had died soon after Hana’s birth. Kiba was her half brother whose father was unknown and as such had even smaller of a political pull then his sister. Tsume had actually not been the clan head, it had been Hana’s father. After his death the position had been allocated to Tsume until Hana showed a desire to take over the position. If she never took over the position, either by chose or as a result of her untimely demise, the next position of clan head would not fall onto Kiba but rather the next descendent of the main line, the third brother of Hana’s father. This meant Kiba’s position in the clan was unstable at best. Without the backing of Tsume he would be unable to have the backing of the Inuzuka clan in positioning the council’s for a change in team specialization.

The Nara clan was his last resource.

“I need your backing at the next council meeting.” Kakashi paused, looked at his drink and sighed. Slowly he began to explain the current predicament his newly minted Team 7 had found themselves in. Not even a day old yet and they were already beginning to feel the curse of horrible luck that had plague every Team 7 before them.

Shikaku took the bottle of sake from the centre of the table and chugged straight from it. His throat bobbed as he quickly consumed several gulps of the clear liquid before replacing it in the centre of the table.

“Do you know how the Nara clan works?” Shikaku asked him. Kakashi shook his head, the Nara clan was incredibly secretive. They shared little with the outside world in terms of knowledge and clan secrets. Those who married into the Nara clan were sworn to secrecy and those who married outside of the Nara clan often didn’t live long enough to tell anyone about what they knew.

“We were originally founded from love. Their was a man, our founder, who found himself in love with a princess. She was as kind as she was beautiful, with a pure heart and soul. Everyone who met her loved her, and as such our founder was of no exception, the only difference was that she loved him back. Her position however, meant that she was to be married to a nearby lord. On their wedding day our founder went into the woods and cried, lamenting the loss of his love. The spirit of the forest heard him and appeared before him in the form of a buck.

“He offered the man a deal, he would give the man an ability to see his love again and take him away with her if he built a house on these lands and him and his decedents cared for the deer who lived here. He readily agreed. The spirit bestowed upon him the ability to use and travel within the shadows, wherever darkness touched the man could go. Whenever he needed more hands the shadows would compile. So the man used this new found ability and went to the castle of the king who had married his princess. He stole her away into the night back to his property. The woman was overjoyed to see him and more then willing to go back with him. They returned to this land and built the very first house, this house in fact.

“They lived for many peaceful years, which they spent happily in love. Eventually the woman fell pregnant and gave birth to a healthy son. They prospered, the three of them, and grew in wealth as they sold the medical herbs and crushed antlers that the forest provided as medical cures. 

The peace did not last long, as the original husband of the woman found out about them. He rounded up his men, for he was a powerful lord with much wealth and territory, and went to the house of the couple, intent on killing them. The fought their way inside and killed the woman. The man and his son were barely able to flea into the forest. The spirit of the forest, sensing the ill will of these men, appeared and killed them, but the loses were still great. The man had lost his wife. He begged the spirit to bring her back, but he couldn’t. He offered, however, to form her spirit into that of the deer which resided in the forest. The man agreed and his wife became a doe, watching over the forest with the original spirit buck.

“But like all deals made with the spirit world this one came with repercussions. The spirit made the man promise that he would not take another wife and never have another child. He also made the child promise that he would not have more then one child, and that his child would only have one child and so on. To supplement the clans ability to have multiple children the buck would make deals with other humans he deemed worthy of his time and gifts and make them live within the compound walls. When they appeared eventually their hair and eyes would turn black but their skin would stay as pale as the light which reflected their shadows.” Shikaku finished, punctuating his story with another sip of sake. 

“I see. But what does that have to do with the current issue?”

“I was getting to that.” Shikaku grumbled, muttering under his breath about ‘impatient young whipper-snippers’.

“With the joining of so many families into one clan, unease grew about the line of succession. The new clan head, the son of the man, saw this and being a Nara he thought up a plan to make everything fair. When his son became 20 he held a contest of intelligence which was judged by the buck and doe spirits of the forest. The son’s son lost to one of the new families and that child became the next in line for clan head. This became tradition that was repeated at the 20th birthday of the clan heads child, should they make it to that age. If they were to fall and die in battle then the challenge would be held on the day of their funeral, as the clan head is not permitted to have another child. Second children are sometimes born.” Shikaku explained, sipping lightly at the sake bottle, “but they never live past their first birthday.”

“What does this have to do with Shikamaru,” Kakashi asked, rubbing lightly at his temples.

“Again, I was getting to that. Shikamaru knows this, few others due, but he’s not actually my child. On the day of the brith of my son, another clan member was also pregnant. Nara members must give birth within the confines of the clan limits, as is pure tradition, and her and Yoshino both had difficult pregnancies. They were attended to by many high end medics but unfortunately my son and the woman, Usono, died. So I adopted Shikamaru. I have loved him as I would have my own son, and even though he was adopted, had this been any other clan then he would have been next in succession. Unfortunately it’s not. 

“Shikamaru’s currently 12, with 8 more years to go before the challenge will be initiated, and there are already three other children in the compound who can compete for the title. That means if I interfere in this situation by stipulating that it would be too dangerous a specialization for the clan heir, which he is by name only, then I’m showing favouritism to my own child. It’s not allowed. Something like that has been done before and it’s angered the spirits, the child in question, and the family, passed away from a horrible and incurable illness.”

Kakashi leaned back onto his palms, staring up at the ceiling. The Nara clan had been his last resort, the only option remaining in an effort to be able to save his team. The life expectancy of a wet-works team was three years, five if they were lucky. Those that didn’t fall in the line of duty were often caught and tortured, with no help coming from their affiliated village, or went rouge, unable to live in a village whose secrets they kept, and were hunted down and exterminated.

“You could just give up on them Kakashi.” Shikaku offered. They both knew that wasn’t even an option. The Hokage would take that as a sign of defeat and disband the children as quickly as they had come together. The Haruno would most likely be returned to the Academy or sent to work in the administrative section of the genin corps were she would rot. Shikamaru would be sent to T&I, as the Hokage had stated, where he’d spend his days cooped up decoding line after line of other village secrets until he retired. The boy might even have liked it too, if it wasn’t such an awful job. His mind would be wiped daily by the Yamanaka so he didn’t remember the secrets he’d been decoding, until eventually there started to be gaps in his memory. With a Nara that might as well have been a death sentence. Kiba would be foster onto that ANBU team. A new genin like him would last a month, maybe two, before he died, either of chakra exhaustion or at the loss of his ninken partner who was still too young to be able to survive the excruciating ANBU regime and missions.

Their fate was sealed before they had even met Kakashi.

“Is the Haruno family of no use?” Shikaku asked. “They are civilian merchants, or so I’ve heard, with a fairly large family name back in Kiri. If they apposed to the idea the Hokage might listen in an effort to preserve the failing relations we have with the civilians right now.”

Kakashi had already considered that. During his home visit at the Haruno household he’d just avoided getting a face full of steal after he’d tried to enter the front door. Only being a student of the fourth Hokage had permitted him to notice the tiny, raised, seal on the bottom of the doorknob. He’d found several other on each windowsill. Slight probing had revealed that each ledge was filled with sharp pieces of metal and glass, and one flower pot at the front door too.

“When I entered the house I discovered the parents bedroom to be dust filled. The only sign of life in the home is Sakura’s, I have no way to be able to get in contact with her parents.”

Shikaku hummed. His hands made the customary symbol of Nara thought, a meditative technique that helped them learn to centre their thoughts, and his eyes closed. For several long minuets Shikaku thought as Kakashi watched him nervously. He’d tried every avenue available to him, but nothing appeared to be panning out. The only thing he had left had been the Nara’s, and even that had been an unfortunate dead end.

Shikaku’s eyes opened. The rest of the hope inside Kakashi died off at the defeated look in the other mans eyes. 

“Their’s nothing that can be done. The only thing you can do is train them, train them day and night to give them the best shot that they have.” Shikaku downed the rest of the sake. Mouth not leaving the lip of the bottle until the container was empty.

“I might not be able to save my son this pain, but whatever you need Kakashi, you’ll have the backing of the Nara clan.”

Kakashi nodded. “I will train them to the best of my abilities, Shikaku, and hopefully some merciful spirits look down on them and lead them to survive the rough road ahead.” With that Kakashi finally lifted the cold glass of sake in front of him and downed the small portion. Desperately he wished for more, but knew he’d need a clear head for the rest of the night.

It was finally time to return to the Hatake compound.

Sakura grinned and stretched, her muscles were still stiff with sleep and unwilling to bend as she got out of bed that morning. She finished a set of stretches and disappeared into the bathroom for a shower. She wasn’t usually a morning shower person but she’d been exhausted last night from the stress of the day and thus had collapsed as in her bed as soon as she’d gotten home. She’d even forgotten to eat last night, her stomach reminded her petulantly, such was her exhaustion. Drying off she made her way to her room, quickly getting dressed and running a brush threw her hair. Her long hair was damp and heavy from water, the ends curled and tangled together, refusing to budge no matter how much she ran a brush threw it. Giving in she grabbed an elastic and quickly tied her hair in a pony tail at the base of her neck, low enough that it would be hard to grab but still keeping her hair from her face.

She went down to the kitchen and quickly devoured three nutrition bars with gusto. She knew that if she looked in the fridge their would be some milk, eggs and a couple of wilted vegetables. She didn’t often cook, didn’t really know how to if she was honest, so most of her meals consisted of take-out and nutrition bars. On the back of each box they promised to be a meal supplement and provide the necessary vitamin and minerals that she would need in her every day life. They probably weren’t meant to be eaten for each and every meal of the day, but, hey, what didn’t kill her had to make her stronger.

It was 5:45 by the time she finished getting ready, they were meeting at 6, so Sakura quickly threw on her shoes and locked up. Breaking into a light jog she neatly dodged around the early morning civilians who groggily dotted the streets.

Sakura made it to training ground 7 just under the wire, settling herself onto the bridge at precisely 5:59am, at least according to her watch. 

“Cutting it a little close their, aren’t you?” Kiba snickered from his position on the bridge. He was perched on the railing, idly kicking his feet back in forth, while Akamaru snoozed happily away in the hood of his jacket. Honestly, Sakura wished she was the little pup right now. She certainly wasn’t a morning person, never was and probably never would be, and sleeping in a nice, comfortable, if slightly smelly, hood sounded absolutely amazing right now. 

At exactly 6:01 a silver and black blur appeared in the middle of the training ground. Kakashi-sensei waved at them, eye smiling even from far away. Slowly Sakura made her way over, gesturing for Kiba to follow her. As she passed Shikamaru, whom was resting at the foot of the bridge, she made sure to step on his stomach lightly, enough to make him grunt but not enough to make it hurt. Grumbling the Nara heir slowly stood up, slouching he followed both her and Kiba over to where the jounin was idly sitting in the grass.

“Sit, sit.” He told them, waving to the general area in front of him. Sakura sat down, with Kiba sitting on her left side and Shikamaru on her right. “Now, how are my little ducks this morning?” Sakura’s face twisted at being referred to a fluffy, tiny, partially aquatic flying animal. If anything she was a vicious bear thank you very much.

Sakura grunted. Shikamaru on the other side of her did the same thing.

“Great!” Kiba chipped, clearly the only morning person among the three of them. Even Akamaru, from within his hood bed, looked vaguely put out at his bright personality so early in the morning.

“I see we have one morning person at least. Now kids, we have some things to discuss first.” Kakashi smiled and clapped his hands together, a poof of smoke appeared briefly shocking Sakura considering she hadn’t seen his gloved hands make any hand signs, revealing a set of forms. He passed a set to each of them, and a pen he’d pulled out of his pocket. The package had to be at least 20 pages long with the smallest print Sakura had ever seen. “These are your registration papers as part of Team 7, in order to become a team each page needs to be filled out and given to the team leader, in this case me, and then submitted to the genin administrative centre to allow our team to be marked as active. Until we submit these forums we’re considered to be an off duty team and are not allowed to take any missions.”

Kakashi paused, face suddenly becoming serious. Sakura wasn’t sure how someones face could look that serious considering that the only piece of skin that was visible was a triangular section of cheek to forehead that included on eye, and his gravity defying silver hair. Sakura was sure that if he could have found a hat to fit over his hair he would have covered it too. “Before you fill out those forums, however, we have some things to discuss first. We need to decide whether or not you three really want to be on my team.”

“What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?” Kiba asked, hand tentatively raised, “we passed your test didn’t we?”

“You did.” Kakashi acknowledged, “however, their are some important things we need to talk about. It’s not a matter of me not wanting you three, but a matter of if you three wanting me. Now what do you know about team specialization.”

“They’re the specific route that most combat or hight level teams take. Usually it’s decide while the team is genin, if a team doesn’t have a specialization more often then not they’re usually allocated to working in the village. Of course their are exceptions to jack of all trades, or if a team member dies and the team needs to find a replacement.”

“Correct Sakura-chan. What you don’t know is that it’s not the team that picks the specialization, it’s the Hokage. The decision is usually based on what teams are needed at the time, such as from your graduation class Team 8 has already been placed as a diplomatic team. They will be specially trained in order to fulfill that requirement to the best of the abilities.”

“What’s ours then Kakashi-sensei?” Kiba asked again, head tilted to the side.

“Good question. The Hokage has decided that you will become a wet-works team. Meaning you’ll take on the missions no-one else wants, assassinations, sabotage, the whole works. You’ll see the worse side of this industry, you’ll do things that will keep you up at night. You’ll see and do things that will make you doubt the very bases of your personality and beliefs. That’s assuming that you stay with me. I’m unable to change your specialization, I’ve already asked the Hokage and he has denied my request. What that means is that the only option that you have to save yourself from this fate is to disband. You’ll no longer be teammates and I’ll no longer be your leader or sensei. The Hokage will place you in positions among the village and you’ll most likely never see each other again.”

“So we have to decide if we want to stay with you, with each other, or become disbanded?” Shikamaru asked. His face, when Sakura turned to him, was cold and calculating. A steely glint had entered his eyes that Sakura had never seen before. Sakura appreciated that look, appreciated the violence and destruction that it promised.

“That is correct Shikamaru-kun.” 

“Well,” Kiba said, leaning back on the palms of his hands. “I’ve been all in since the beginning, that’s not about to change now.” From the hood of his coat Akamaru barked his agreement.

“Don’t you want more time to think about it Kiba? Wet-works teams only have three to five year life expectancies.” Kakashi question, he didn’t sound mean about it, just generally curious. 

“Nah, it’s all good with me. I knew from the second I was selected on the team that we’d be together till the end.”

“You sound awfully confident about that for someone who got in an argument with me three seconds into being alone together.” Sakura chirped. She’d already made up her mind and she had no desire to be just another faceless cog in the ninja machine. She’d rather die then spend her life behind a desk filing paperwork for the councils. Besides, the more mobile that she was the harder it would be for the Haruno clan to catch up with her. She’d been given permission to leave the compound but only under the stipulation that she return should they call upon her. If she was never around to receive the summons then they could never expect her back. If she could help it, she would never go back to the compound as long as she lived.

“So what? We’re probably going to keep fighting, I’d be surprised if we ever stopped if I’m honest. But that’s what makes us click. Each and every awful part of us falls in line with the other, whether we realize it or not.”

Sakura snorted. “You haven’t even seen my awful parts Inuzuka.”

“And you haven’t seen mind.” He countered. “But you’re already nothing like you were at the Academy, not even close. So whatever you say or whatever you did that made you act like that back then must have been bad enough that it left you with scars. I don’t know what they are, and unless you decide to tell me I may never know, but I can just feel that they fit together. The chakra inside me feels that and I can’t help but agree with him.” He smiled, it was boyish and rough. It seemed happy enough to the outside observer, just another kid smiling on a warm summer day, but Sakura was close enough to see the sharp fangs that lined his mouth. She could already picture them dripping with blood and chunks of thick human flesh that he tore from his opponent. 

She sighed. He’d gotten her. “Fine, I’m in. I guess I’m stuck with you losers.”

She turned to Shikamaru. “What about you antler head?”

He looked at both her and Kiba. “How can you both be so sure that this is what you want. With the way this team is set up all of us could die tomorrow.”

“Yeah, so what? We’re ninja, we could very well die tomorrow even if we never left the village. The second we took our headbands we agreed that we would be of every use to our village. We agreed to live for it and to die for it, but nowhere in that oath does it stipulate how the village should use us. We’re pawns until the day we die, unless one of use decides to become Hokage, which seems pretty unlikely to me. Dying today or tomorrow means nothing to me, so long as I do it protecting the people closest to me.”

“Fuck dude, you’re deep today.” Sakura hissed, startled at the knowledge Kiba had just spouted, so far past his usual range of philosophies. Then again, who was she to say that. She barely knew him, had only really spent a day taking to him. What is to say that this wasn’t the way he always thought.

“Why thanks.”

“No problem.”

“You’re both so troublesome.” Shikamaru interrupted. He looked at both of them, posture tensed. Whatever he saw must have made up his mind because he sighed, releasing all the tension that his muscles were storing, and turned towards Kakashi.

“Fine. If they’re in then I’m in.”

“Alright then kids.” Kakashi said, clapping his hands together. “Lets get to work.”

Apparently getting to work meant that Kakashi made them fill out their paperwork. Grumbling the three of them reluctantly did so. It took most of the morning and by the time they were done it was nearly 11:30 in the afternoon. 

When they gave their packets to Kakashi he gave each of them a piece of paper in return. Written on all three of the pieces was the same address. 

“I want you all to go home and pack everything you think you’ll need for the next six months, toiletries, clothes, books, weapons, and personal effects. You have thirty minuets. After that I want all three of you to meet at the gates of this address, this is were you’ll be living. I’ve already got agreement from everyone whose parents are in the village,” here he shot a look at Sakura and she shrugged. She was more or less sure her parents wouldn’t care even if they came back at some point during those six months, “so their’s no need to tell them. Any questions.” They were all quiet. “Good, I’ll see you then.”

With a slight pop Kakashi disappeared, leaving no smoke in his path. Kiba quietly whistled beside her, suitably impressed. Sakura had to agree, a large scale replacement with no leftover residue was nothing to shake your head at. 

The three of them quickly made their way to their separate residences, knowing that in the scheme of things thirty minuets wasn’t a lot of time to pack.

Sakura entered her residence and flew to her room, darting up the stairs. She grabbed her large back pack from the top shelf of her closet and stuffed her toiletries in the bottom. She then proceeded to pack her hair brush, weapons, and clothes on top of it, pausing before slipping some hair bands from her dresser drawer. Her pack was almost full already, so she raced downstairs and grabbed her nutrition bars from the cabinet. She considered throwing out the few remnants of her fridge but decided against it, she doubted her parents would be back before she was and even then nothing in the fridge would smell particularly bad if it went rotten.

Returning to her room she placed the bars in her pack. The beige pack was almost full, slightly bulging at the sides but their was still some room left on top. Biting her lip she squatted down by her bed and reached underneath it. Her fingers brushed against cool, smooth wood which she gently pulled out. The box was a little bigger then a jewelry box, made of polished birch wood with a little lock in the front. What most people didn’t realize was that the lock was not how the box was actually opened. Instead the lock was actually a well designed wooden seal that would explode if tampered with. Their was no key to the box, none was needed as the owner of the box would know better then to try and open it that way. Instead Sakura flipped it over. The bottom of the box was ornately decorated with a seal depicting the elements. These elements where different then the ones found in this country, however, instead of earth, wind, water, fire, and lightening, it went wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Biting her finger deeply enough so that a slight bead of blood welled on the tip of her finger, she used it to connect the elements of wood and metal, finishing by inscribing the Haruno kanji on top of the line. 

The box gave a light shudder before the circle of elements gave off an otherworldly grey glow. Previously invisible lines appeared and the top of the box slowly crept upwards as it opened. The inside of the box was as a much darker colour then the outside. To others it might seem that the box was simply stained with a dark finish, but she knew it was stained with her own blood and applied using a brush made from her own hair. Slowly she withdrew the pictures from the box. It was five children, faces pale as they stared up at her. Their eyes were blank with death and in some cases their white hair dyed slightly with their own blood. The last picture in the box was of little Sakura. Her green eyes looked broken, her doll-like face devastated as she held a lock of her newly pink coloured hair. Across the bottom of her photo was a single word, ‘Survivor’. Nothing was written on any of the other photos, nothing needed to be. The names of each and every child in that box was tattooed across her back, running from the T1 to the T12 vertebrae. 

When Sakura died this box would be buried with her, cradled in her arms like so many other Survivors before her. Then and only then would the souls of her dead cousins who lived within the box be free to find peace in the next world.

Sakura closed the box up before wiping the blood off the bottom of it with the blanket from her bed. She placed the box on the top of her things, the only truly personal effect that she had, and closed the pack. A quick glance at her alarm clock revealed that she had spent fifteen precious minuets gazing at the box, she now only had five minuets to make it to the address. 

She quickly shouldered the pack, throwing it on her back and darting down the stairs. She’d left her shoes on so she didn’t hesitate to dart out of the door, locking it and shoving the key into the false flap of skin on her wrist. A quick glance of the address revealed that it was in the ninja district of the city, so she darted off in that direction. She knew where she was headed without really needing to know the exact street number. Her sensei was a Hatake after all and even though the location could have very well been an apartment in the jounin district she had a feeling that it was actually the location of the Hatake clan compound. She swiftly dodged threw the crowded streets. It was almost noon now so the streets were filled with both civilians and ninja alike. She deftly slid underneath a vegetable cart, thin body fitting effortlessly between the bottom of the cart and the ground. Her backpack almost got caught but luckily was just small enough that it fit. Regaining her ground, and ignoring the startled street merchant, she darted down the nearest alley way and cut left. The alleys were the easiest means of navigating the village outside of the rooftops. Sakura was only a genin and as such she had yet to get the license required to use the rooftop highways. Only ninja of chuunin statues or higher were permitted to use them, and first had to pass a test that determined their intimate knowledge of the rooftop highways. If you failed you wouldn’t be able to apply again for another six months. 

Taking the next three rights, Sakura popped out deep in the heart of the ninja district. Booking it north she quickly came upon the high, red walls of the Hatake compound. The gates were quickly approaching and she noted that Kiba was already their, though Shikamaru was decidedly absent. 

Skidding to a stop she almost bowled into Kiba. A quick pulse of chakra to her feet stabilized her enough that she didn’t skid into her teammate and take them both tumbling into the dusty, yellowed, dirt underneath their feet.

“Good timing.” Kiba quipped, looking at the watch on his wrist. “You had two minuets.” He smiled his wolfish grin at her. Sakura noted his pack, a budging misshapen blue thing, was placed against the red wall of the compound and dropped hers beside it. Quickly she opened the top flap of the pack, the smooth wood of the box glinted up at her. Satisfied that she hadn’t lost it she closed the pack once more and swiftly zipped it up.

Less then a minuet later Shikamaru showed up, lightly jogging up to them. His pack was a bright yellow thing covered in tiny patches of deer and trees. Sakura smirked when she saw it, face pulling into the first natural expression since her and Ino’s broken friendship.

“Shove it,” Shikamaru hissed, “it’s my moms, mine wasn’t big enough.” 

“I didn’t say anything.” Sakura said, holding both hands up in front of her in a mockery of peace. Shikamaru scowled at her, grumply placing his pack beside her own against the wall. 

At exactly noon the heavy gates to the Hatake compound slide open. The gates had obviously once been a dark obsidian colour but now they were a dark grey, bleached from the sun. Some loose ivy had made it’s way up the hinges of the gate and entangled itself in the dark metal. 

On the inside of the gate Kakashi-sensei was waiting, dressed rather differently then the last time they had seen him. He was still covered head to toe, black gloves occupying his fingers and his black undershirt complete with a lower facemark was still on, but now instead of his regular gear he’d thrown on a a heavy ornate haori and hakama. The haori was a deep black with read embroidered wolves on the sleeves, the hakama was a deep red with thin, black, vertical pin stripping. His regulation footwear had been replaced with zori that made a slight crunching sound every time he took a step.

“Welcome to the traditional home of the Hatake clan.” He said, gesturing with one arm. The thick sleeves of his haori billowed with the gesture. He approached the three of them. Sakura felt considerably undressed compared to her sensei but was quick to remind herself that Kakashi-sensei hadn’t told them to change their clothing.

“This is my home, and will be yours for the next six months. Possibly longer. Hear you will become each others clan. In order to survive you must learn to be one person in four separate bodies. You will become each others strengths and weaknesses.” Stone faced Kakashi moved closer. “Please give me the palm of your hand, you must be accepted by the wards in order to enter.” Tentatively Sakura pocked the chakra inside of her. The spirit seemed to yawn and stretch within her, unfurling itself like a sleepy cat before shaking itself. The chakra moved slowly, spreading itself out from within her and gentle prodding the wards of the Hatake compound. The wards were thick and strong, made from a small piece of chakra from each Hatake that had resided here. The wards where weak at the moment, weaker then they had been in the past, but growing gradually stronger. They’d been empty for ten years, the wards seemed to sing, but now the heir had returned and with him brought pups. 

Sakura flushed when the wards ruffled her hair. They were tired but playful, willing to accept her and her teammates into them where they would have once been standoffish and fickle. 

Sakura flipped the palm of her hand up. The teammates on either side of her seemed to take that as their cue and flipped there’s up too. Smiling Kakashi drew a single line across the bridge of their palm with a ceremonial dagger. It was a long, wicked looking thing with an obsidian hilt decorated with blood red rubies. When the tip was darkened with the blood of all three of them the rubies seemed to glint. The blood on the tip hissed, steaming, before disappearing completely. For a brief second Sakura felt nothing, then all at once the wards surrounded her body, pushing deep within her then withdrawing, taking the smallest piece of her with them. It left her winded. A quick glance at her teammates revealed that they, too, were struggling to catch their breath.

“Very good. I was worried they wouldn’t accept you for a second. They’ve been known to burn those they don’t like alive.” 

“Why wouldn’t you tell us that before?” Shikamaru hissed.

“I didn’t want you to be too tense.” Shrugging Kakashi gestured for them to fallow him deeper into the compound. Grumbling the three of them fallowed him. Behind them the gates shut, enclosing them in their new home.

The clan compounds had obviously once been grand but now fell into some form of disarray. Ten years worth of weeds were poking threw the crumbling pathways and weaselling in-between the once polished wood of the buildings. The streets weren’t packed with houses, like the way that the Uchiha clan had been before they were destroyed, but their were several large, grand looking houses. Kakashi took them to the house at the back. It had obviously housed the clan leader at one point, as it was the biggest and most ornate of all of the residences. Their was a large deck that wrapped around the outside of the house, large obsidian columns supported the front overhang of the second floor and a large carved door. It would have once been beautiful, breathtaking, but now it was dirty and cracked. The outside was in desperate need of paint, the magnificent glittering windows were dusty and one was cracked. Finally the door was slightly warped, the polished wood distorted and hanging awkwardly in the doorway. 

Kakashi-sensei peeled it back, it creaked on it’s hinges and reluctantly gave way. The inside of the house was just as sad as the outside. A leak had clearly occurred at some point in the roof. It had gone on for so long that the ceiling of the entranceway was darkened by the water. The hallways were dusty but their was no obvious signs of rodents.

Kakashi showed them around, the first floor was composed of the kitchen, an incredible half bath that was both inside and outside, living room, library and meeting room. Taking them upstairs their were four room, a full bathroom that was considerably smaller then the one downstairs, and three bedrooms of identical size. 

“This is where all of us will be sleeping.” Kakashi told them. Their were four futons set up and one dog bed, one of the beds was already laid out with some clothing, Kakashi’s she thought, but the other three, which took up one whole side of the room, were untouched. 

“Dibs!” Sakura called, quickly darting to the bed closets to the door, throwing both herself and her stuff on to it. 

“No fair!” Kiba cried, as he reluctantly set his stuff down on the middle futon. Shikamaru, with much less grumbling, took the furthest futon to the door. It had a window beside it that overlooked the large expanse of woods outside.

“I’ve handed in your paperwork and commissioned three months worth of D-rank missions. You’ll spend your time here, training and fixing up the residence. You’ll complete two D-rank missions a day, fallowed by seven hours of intensive training with a brief pause for lunch. After that we’ll return here for dinner and team building exercise. At the end of the three months we’ll go for our first C-rank mission. Provided that goes well we’ll aim to take three more C-ranks before the chuunin exams in six months. Provided that you all pass, which you will if you know what’s good for you, and you don’t completely hate me by the end of this, I’ll recommend that I keep you on as my team.”

“And if we do hate you?” Sakura asked.

“Then I’ll recommend you three stay a team and I’ll return to what I was doing before.” Kakashi smiled but the look was slightly bitter. There was a broken edge to him that Sakura was more then familiar with. It was the exact same as hers, right down to the sharp glint in her eyes that she saw each morning when she practiced smiling in the mirror.

She exchanged a glance with her teammates. For the first time, but not that last, they all seemed to be on the same page. Sakura could read each of them as clearly as they were reading her.

“You’re ours just as much as we’re yours Kakashi-sensei, if we stay together, you stay with us.” Sakura said firmly. Her chakra, which had been happily playing with the new surroundings since she woke it up, poked and prodded at the chakra inside of Kiba and Shikamaru. Together the three chakra’s combined into one, covering Kakashi with themselves and waking the chakra within him. Tentatively it reached out to them. All at once their chakra surrounded it, twining and twirling with it until it became as much a part of them as they were of it.

They were stuck together now, it seemed.

The three of them unpacked. Their was a closet allocated to each of them, filled with hangers. Cringingly Sakura hung up her clothing, noting that the dress she was currently wearing had a hole in the side from where it had been picked at by a branch. The fabric was flimsy and annoying. Jealously she watched as Shikamaru and Kiba hung thick, comfortable and dark coloured clothing up in their closets. She stored the nutrition bars in her closet, along with her toiletries. Finally she took the box from the bed where she left it. Dusting off the top of it she placed it within the closet. Idly she could feel Kakashi watching her, but he made no move to ask her about it. 

Once the three of them were finished unpacking Kakashi led them downstairs to the kitchen area. There was a dusty table sitting in the middle with four chairs. Opening the fridge he took out five containers of takeout. They were each the same thing, she discovered, just pork and cold noodles, with only pork for Akamaru who quickly gobbled it down. 

They spent the rest of the evening testing the house. The plumbing was thankfully still working as was the electricity. The only big issue they could find with the house was the fact that it had sat uninhabited for ten years, accumulating dust and grime. It was in desperate need of upkeep, but it seemed Kakashi-sensei had already factored that into their training regimen. 

Gradually the four of them began to make their way upstairs. It was dark out now, the sky was clear of clouds and the moon streamed in from the window outside. It reflected in the tiny room, illuminating each corner with silver light. Sakura settled down into her futon, bringing the soft blue blanket up to her chin. Around her Shikamaru and Kiba were doing the same thing. Akamaru had settled into the small, miniature futon Kiba had placed at the end of his bed, tiny puppy body already deep into the REM cycle. Occasionally a paw would twitch as he dreamed. 

As she settled down for sleep she noticed Kakashi-sensei had yet to go to bed. He was kneeling on his perfectly made futon, gazing out the window. The silver of the moon illuminated his features making them seem even darker in the night. 

He turned and looked at her.

“Goodnight Sakura-chan.” He said, his voice seemed rough with emotion but he was wearing his customary eye smile. Shrugging it off Sakura closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

When Sakura opened her eyes it was still night. The moon was up further from where it had been when she’d first fallen asleep. Now she couldn’t see the moon from her position gazing out the window. She wondered what had woke her. She wasn’t a deep sleeper but she wasn’t a light sleeper either. Her questioned was answered when far in the distance the sound of howling resonated threw the compound. It was a low howl that vibrated in her bones as it gradually picked up pitch.

She spied Shikamaru, Kiba and Akamaru in the room. They where still asleep, bodies moving softly in the darkness as they breathed. A quick glance at the other side of the room revealed that Kakashi-sensei had disappeared. She battled with indecision for a second, to go or not to go, that was the question. Sighing she cursed her own curiosity. Picking up a pillow from her bed she chucked it at her nearest companion, Kiba. Yelping the half asleep boy woke up, fumbling with his blankets as he half heartedly tried to fight his mystery assailant.

Realizing that there was no one attacking him he sleepy glanced around the room.

“Sakura?” He hissed in the darkness.

“Get up and get dressed.” She told him, flinging herself out of bed. She was dressed in her night shirt and a pair of peach coloured pyjama bottoms. “And get Shikamaru too.” She added as she grabbed a handful of clothing from a closet. Grumbling she heard Kiba get up and began to poke at Shikamaru as she disappeared into the bathroom down the hall. 

Throwing on the bathroom light she squinted as she quickly began to get dressed. She’d chosen the wrong closet and instead of her old clothes she had grabbed Shikamaru’s. She shrugged out of her stuff and slipped on the mesh top and black pants. She was wearing a black sports bra underneath her pj top so at least she wasn’t showing anything. Not that she really had anything to show anyways. 

Her hair was a mess, tangled from sleep and half crushed on one side. Scowling she ran her fingers threw it a couple of times before calling it a lost cause and heading back into the room.

Shikamaru and Kiba were both up and dressed, though Shikamaru seemed pretty reluctant to be so. When she entered he squinted at her.

“Are those my clothes?” He asked.

“Yup.” There was no point in denying it, they clearly weren’t hers. Jealously she hugged the fabric to her body. The mesh top was revealing but the pants were so comfortable and they had so many pockets!

Still side eyeing her Shikamaru grunted. “Why did you wake us up? And where’s Kakashi-sensei?” On cue a howl rang out, this one was higher pitched then the other one. It felt more fierce then the last howl, this time it rang deep within her, passing her bones and vibrating straight within her soul. 

“That’s why I woke you up. Grab your shoes,” she told them, ignoring the nervous glances they were shooting each other. “We’re going to go find Kakashi-sensei.”

The woods behind the house were darker at this time of the night then they were during the day. A clear path had been made threw the thick undergrowth, however, so Sakura tentatively led the way threw. The full moon, which had seemed so bright from inside the house, barely seemed to be filtering in threw the high, rough barked trees. With each step the trees seemed to be reaching out towards them, getting closer and closer until the already small path seemed suffocating. Small twigs and thorns pricked at the exposed part of Sakura’s legs and pulled at the mesh of her top. Luckily the mesh was more resistant then her clothes would have been and didn’t tear. But the holes still allowed the tiny twigs to prickle at her skin drawing small beads of blood. 

“I don’t like this.” Kiba hissed from the back. He was nervously pulling at his hood where Akamaru would have resided, worrying the fur. He’d decided to let Akamaru sleep rather then wake the younger pup and take him with them. She couldn’t blame him, she wouldn’t have wanted to take him on this adventure either.

The howling was getting louder the deeper they went into the forest. It seemed to be coming from all around them, echoing in the dimmed light. Sakura refused to stray from the path though, it would be easier to find their way back should they come to nothing at the end of this journey. 

Just as the path seemed to narrow to a point of them being unable to pass it began to open again, the thicket becoming less dense then previously and even the trees seemed to change colour.

“I don’t think we should be here.” Shikamaru hissed from directly behind her. His breath was hot and nervous on the back of her neck coming out in soft pants. It was still spring in Konoha right now so the nights were colder then the days and many times they were filled with rain. Tonight seemed especially cold, her breath creating tiny clouds in front of her when she exhaled though it hadn’t started out that way. She vaguely wished that she’d brought a jacket. At any moment it felt like it might start snowing.

“We’re almost there.” Sakura told him, “just a little farther.” It was true, too. She could feel that they were getting closer and if she turned around now she knew they were never going to find out what was happening tonight. It seemed important that they knew, though what they were suppose to know Sakura wasn’t sure.

They kept walking, footsteps silent as the path lightened further. Eventually the path opened up into a clearing, reddish coloured trees breaking up until before them was an empty field filled with only red poppy blooms. She stopped at the precipice of the clearing, Kiba and Shikamaru gathering on either side of her. No-one said anything. No-one needed to. Whatever they were about to witness seemed too important for words.

Sakura wasn’t sure how long they were waiting but gradually the moon began to move downwards in the sky again. Her muscles felt stiff and her skin was cold. She wanted to rub her arms but she was too afraid to move.

They weren’t kept waiting much longer. Shadows moved in the distance to the left of them. They moved gracefully, bobbing along the edges of the field until gradually they began to emerge. 

They were wolves, ten or so of them by the looks of it. Their furs where a mix of colours, though mostly black and white with a few splotches of grey and red amongst them. They walked further into the field until they were about half way before sitting down neatly; heads held high as they watched for something in the other direction.

That something turned out to be Kakashi-sensei. He emerged from the dense forest, quickly making his way to the centre of the poppy field. He was wearing little, a simple white fur pelt was thrown over her shoulders like a shawl, which he was using it to obscure the bottom half of his face. His legs were clad in black leather looking breeches with white fur that started at the knees and ended at his naked feet. This was the first time Sakura had actually seen any skin from her sensei outside of his usual patch that he left uncovered to see. This time both eyes were uncovered along with his chest, back and arms. Each and every part of the flesh was covered with a wide arrange of scars and burn tissue. What might have once been flawless alabaster skin was heavily marked with the scars from his survival in the ninja world. 

Slung over his naked shoulder was a large buck, it’s body at least three times the size of Kakashi-sensei’s requiring him to drag most of the lower half behind him. The body was bloody, it’s eyes closed and tongue sticking out from its limp mouth, it’s throat was a mess of gory ripped flesh and tiny fragments of bone. Blood dripped down from the carcass and landed on the poppy flowers blow. Each spot where the droplets hit the flower would begin to turn sky blue. Slowly a trail of blue poppies followed Kakashi’s wake, gentle blue flowers swaying slightly in the breezeless cold air. 

Kakashi walked to the centre of the field, little more then five meters from where the pack of wolves sat, he hefted the carcass in front of him and knelt behind it, head bow. For several long moments, that seemed to stretch into eternity, no one moved, not Kakashi, not the wolves and most certainly not them. 

A sudden and ear splitting howl broke threw the air. Sakura jumped, as did her teammates beside her, but neither Kakashi nor the wolves showed any indication of surprise. Another moment passed before rustling at the left side of the field occurred again. This time no wolf emerged. Instead a women broke threw the trees; or what appeared to be a woman anyways. 

She was tall, taller then any woman Sakura had ever seen, standing at a good seven or eight feet. She was dressed mostly in furs and leathers, her long, lean body, covered in a thick black pelt that acted like a jacket, her legs were covered in a pair of long pants seemingly composed of red leather. With each step she took she jingled with the jewelry covering her body. It was comprised of mostly painted wooden beads, antlers and bones tied together at her hips and around her neck. The bones around her neck were teeth, though she wasn’t sure if they were human or animal. They glittered like diamonds in the dim light. Her long hair was the palest shade of silver Sakura had ever seen, and that was something considering most of her family was composed of white haired, or grey haired, individuals, and it was well kept in comparison to the rest of her appearance. The pin straight strands fell to her ankles and were restrained with only a simple black leather band at the base of her neck. She seemed to pause for a second, her fluid motions halting, head tilted upwards like she was taking in the smells of the area. Slowly she turned her head towards the path where the three of them were hiding out. Her eyes were grey, the colour of clouds before the storm, and her face was decorated in painted on markings reminiscent of the symbols of Kiba’s cheeks though they were the same blue as the poppy flowers instead of red.

She smiled. Sakura supposed it was meant to be kind but thick, long, fangs jutted out from her mouth at the action, resulting in a rather ferocious appearance. 

“Come here pups.” She said. Her voice was rough, not musical like Sakura would have expected; it remained her of the sound of a lumberjack sawing down a tree. Her tone brokered no argument and reluctantly Sakura emerged from her hiding place, lightly dragging Kiba and Shikamaru behind her.

They went to Kakashi, who had tensed at the sound of the woman’s voice, kneeling in a line behind him.

“Are these yours Kakashi?” The woman asked.

“Yes Shina-sama.” 

The woman sighed. She snapped her fingers and a pillow appeared on the ground. It appeared to be made of pure stone covered in frost but she sprawled on it like it was the most comfortable thing in the world. She balanced her chin on her knee and folded her arms around the leg gently. Even sitting like that she was intimidating, up close even more so then she had been from far away. Her grey eyes glinted with unspoken knowledge and each limb was long and muscular, looking like even her pinkie toe could crush Sakura in half with no effort. Sakura hadn’t felt this intimidated since the Umi’s.

“Maa maa, you’re just as boring as always Kakashi-chan. No fun whatsoever.” Her gaze shifted from Kakashi to the new Team 7. “But these ones. These ones look like plenty of fun.” She smiled, her teeth glinted inside of her mouth. Somewhere deep in her soul Sakura shivered. Not out of fear, however, but out of anticipation.

“I can’t even decide which is my favourite.” She cooed. “There all so interesting. The bear, broken but whole, the deer, wild but tamed, and the wolf, not one but both. It seems you’ve finally brought me the next generation Kakashi-chan.” The woman reached one of her long arms out. As if in slow motion it reached out and creased Kiba’s face from his position behind Kakashi-sensei. She wondered how long Shina-sama ’s arms were, it had reached all that way and yet it was still slightly bent at the joint. One of her long nails, more of a claw then nail really, creased the side of Kiba’s cheek, gently running up and down the marks on his cheek. They seemed to glow slightly before one of them changed from red to blue, the same colour of the blue poppies below them.

“You’re one of my children and one of my brother’s dear one. But more mine then his.” The colour on Kiba’s cheeks kept spreading and gradually the other symbol changed to blue too. Only after it had changed from red to blue did Shina-sama remove her finger.

“What’s your name little one?” 

“K-Kiba Inuzuka.” Their was a slight tremor in Kiba’s voice. It didn’t sound like fear. She glanced at her teammate and was pleased to see she was right, rather then fear it seemed to be adoration.

Shina-sama laughed. It was a gruff sound, more like dogs barking then actual laughter, it carried on for several long moments and even after she was done it seemed to rebound within the trees.

“I like this one. What about the deer and the bear, what are your names dear pups?”

“Shikamaru Nara.”

“Sakura Haruno.” 

“A Haruno, a Nara and an Inuzuka walk into a bar.” The woman mused. “No that doesn’t sound right.” She shook her head. “How about, a Haruno, a Nara and a Hatake enter a bar.” She clapped her hands. “Much better! From now on little half Inuzuka you will be a full Hatake of the North. You will protect these lands after Kakashi has passed. And after you have passed, your children after you.” The woman was smiling, it seemed pleasant enough, her whole demeanour was pleasant really, but Sakura could feel the undercurrent of wildness that lurked just beneath this woman’s fragile mask.

“Shina-sama I’m afraid you can’t really do that.” Kakashi-sensei interrupted, his head was still bowed, the deer carcass in front of him had rapidly cooled; congealing blood dying all the flowers in the vicinity sky blue. Slowly the blood was beginning to creep closer and closer to the three of them. She wondered if she would turn blue if the blood touched her.

“Semantics Kakashi-chan, his blood is more mine then my brothers and I need more clan members. He has enough and I want this one. You just have to make it happen. Think of it as repayment Kakashi-chan, for the ten years you ignored me.” Under her words Kakashi-sensei seemed to stiffen, muscles becoming tenser and tenser, at the mention of the long time he’d spent away from the clan he became so tense that Sakura worried that he’d snap in half.

The woman sighed and stood up, the pillow made of stone and frost disappearing. Gentle she approached him, long legs easily stepping over the dead animal. She bent down so that she was closer to Kakashi-sensei, though she still kept her head above his. 

“Look at me Kakashi Hatake. Met my eyes.” Gingerly Kakashi raised his head. For the first time Sakura got a good look at most of his face, though his lower half from the nose down still remained covered. The right eye was his normal grey but the left was a deep red with a spinning black totem in the centre. She’d only seen pictures of that eye in books. It was the dojutsu of the Uchiha clan, carefully cultivated and almost extinct.

The two of them starred at each other for several minuets. Piece by piece Kakashi-sensei gradually began to relax, muscles finally letting go of their strain.

“When you were born your father took you to meet me. Your mother was already dead and buried by then and with her a part of your father. But he loved you, that was clear, and when I met you I knew that you’d become a part of this pack just like your father before you and your grandfather before that. I could see that you would have a tough life young pup, you’d become fractured and broken barely holding onto yourself as you tried not to crumble from loss. The first time I looked into your little babe eyes I knew you’d leave me one day, but I also knew that you’d return, as they always do, to continue on with your clans traditions. So I’m not mad young one. I couldn’t be mad at you if you tried, so your repentance is unnecessary. I will, however, take the deer you offer us and the pups that you brought us. They will become as much as the clan as you will, and all I ask is that you adopt the little Inuzuka, or all of them, or even just two of them. Honestly. I don’t care so long as I get a new grandchild or two.” 

She smiled down at the three of them. She looked grandmotherly as she gazed on each of them with her laughing grey eyes. Sakura wondered if this was what having a grandmother felt like.

“I accept you back into the fold, Kakashi Hatake. For the rest of your days you will never know loneliness so long as the Pack of the North still breaths. Though even if we didn’t I doubt your three little pups would leave you.” She winked at the three of them then stood. Gathering the giant deer carcass over one shoulder she headed over to where the ten other wolves had been patiently waiting. As she turned towards them their humongous bodies rose from their sitting position and gracefully loped into the woods with nary a sound.

Just before the trees reclaimed Shina-sama she turned towards them once more. They were each still kneeling in the soft field of poppy, all turned the sky blue colour now. She smiled at them, it was beautiful this time, lacking the sharp fangs that had made it appear so ferocious earlier. “Be safe my children and know that so long as the pack survives you’ll always have a home.” With that Shina-sama disappeared into the woods, the red barked trees swallowing her whole. Soon it was as if she never existed.

Kakashi rose from the ground and they fallowed suit. His white fur shawl was untouched by blood, but his back and breeches were stained with the cooper substance, it had begun to fleck off in some places revealing the pink scar tissue it covered underneath. 

“Well. That was eventful.”

Sakura couldn’t help it, she laughed. That was certainly one way of putting it. 

After that Kakashi-sensei guided them out of the woods. They’d seemed friendlier then when they’d first gone in, Kiba thought, now instead of scratching and pulling at them as they went by the trees seemed to pull back, the path seemed smoother and the dark oppressive atmosphere from earlier was gone. 

Kakashi was in the lead this time followed by Shikamaru, Sakura and then him. He’d never seen Sakura in something as revealing as Shikamaru’s clothes before and it was a little off-putting if he was honest. Her back was covered in a long line of thick kanji that was visible threw the mesh. They appeared to be names, five of them, but Kiba wasn’t sure their purpose. Shikamaru, who’d most likely caught this oddity long before he did, kept sneaking looks back at Sakura head tilted to the side in the way that he did when he had a mystery he couldn’t solve. 

It was the way he’d looked when Iruka-sensei had announced them as a team. Kiba probably had a similar look on his face back then.

To say he’d been shocked by the teams would have been putting it mildly. He certainly hadn’t expected to be with Shikamaru, first off, let alone the only civilian born in the class. Shikamaru had almost been a guarantee to be on an Ino-Shika-Cho formation like his father before him and his father before that. Kiba wasn’t sure if he was going to be placed on a jounin level team, because of his bad grades in everything but taijutsu, but if he had he would have thought he’d be placed on a tracking and capture based team, most likely with Hinata and Shino. He figured the only reason he actually had made it to jounin was because it wasn’t well known outside of his clan that he wasn’t the second heir to the Inuzuka, which relied on an inheritance system derived from maintaining the control of the original family. If his sister was to die, which he really hoped she never did, the position would go to one of the distant uncles on Hana’s dad’s side who had the closest blood relation to the original founders of the Inuzuka. Here gender meant nothing, what really held control was blood relations.

He’d always known that Hana was only his half-sister. His mother loved to yell out that fact when she was drunk and belligerent, but she cared about him and he cared about her. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept him going.

He’d decided shortly after Iruka-sensei had called his name that the team wasn’t going to last. He’d probably get an apprenticeship when the team fell threw, either with the vet clinic or a tracking team that needed another member, and that would be that. He doubted he’d ever see Haruno ever again and Nara very rarely. That had all changed the day at the bridge when Haruno stopped being Haruno and Nara stopped being Nara. It was after Sakura showed him how to access the other part of him, his chakra, who was both separate and the same as him, that he began to see a future for the team. He could see the three of them and Akamaru and Kakashi-sensei being invincible. He could see them growing together and learning to trust each other in a way that he’d only ever done before with Akamaru. He known at that moment that they would never be as good apart as they would be together and so when Kakashi-sensei offered them a choice to split up or become a wet-works squad it hadn’t even been a choice to him.

The other’s were quick to follow, as he knew they would be, and soon they were moved into the Hatake estate with Kakashi-sensei. He’d told his sister as he’d finished packing but hadn’t bother to tell anyone else in the clan. He wasn’t close with any of the others and it wasn’t for lack of effort on his part. The clan had always rejected him, even his mother had, and no matter what he did they never seemed to be able to love him back. Now he knew why. It felt right in an odd way, like a part of him he hadn’t even known was missing had finally been found. He felt whole, and when Shina-sama had declared him a part of her clan he’d felt happiness in a way he’d never know before now.

The dense forest finally let up. He once more found himself in the backyard of the main house. Kakashi guided them back up the stairs and to the room. His face was strict as he told them to go to bed while he went for a bath. He was still covered in tacky blood from his kill earlier, something he was probably use to, but Kiba imagined he was in a hurry to change back into less revealing clothing.

The first real thing that Kiba had learned about his team was that they were all terrible in social situations. Sakura, who seemed like she might actually be able to deal with humans on a social basis, didn’t understand social cues at all. She pushed when she should have pulled said inappropriate things at the worst times and couldn’t smile to save her life. Kiba had never noticed it before; mainly because she’d seemed so much like the other girls in his class, obsessed with the Uchiha, horrible at taijutsu and only really good at book smarts. Actually socializing with her on a very regular basis he was shocked to see how wrong he’d been. It was almost like she’d been raised in a cave. Kakashi was even worse then her, if that was possible. After having just met him Kiba could tell he had very few friends, lived a reclusive life stye and had most likely never recovered from a past trauma. His profession only helped him hide further in obscurity, though his name was widely known and widely feared. Kiba would be honestly shocked if the man had ever had sex before, not with the way he carried his porn book around like a safety blanket to prevent him from actual human interaction and intimacy. The only person he had some semblance of hope for was Shikamaru and even then it was a very fragile thread he was grasping at. Shikamaru hated to socialize and clearly hated situations that put him outside of his comfort zone or forced him to interact with people he didn’t know. Often time the other boy got so wrapped up in analyzing others that he didn’t stop to consider any emotional aspect that might play a role in other peoples actions.

Kiba knew that he was on the complete opposite spectrum then the others. His mother had very little love for him growing up, if she ever had any, so he’d adapted to being able to read other people as a necessity to avoid her when she was in a black mood. As a result he knew how to read people like books. Even people he just met on the streets he could tell with ease their mood, what they did for a living, and what he could say to them to get something out of them. When he was younger he use to play a game where he’d find random people on the street, usually food venders, and follow them around until they got to their place of work. He’d then approach them and see if he could somehow get free food off of them just by reading their body language. He had a pretty decent success rate too. Ever once in a while he’d accidentally offend someone by reading them a little too well and get banned from their store, but more often then not he’d walk away with his lunch or dinner for the day.

Going into this team he knew that would be his skill set. Shikamaru had tactics, Kakashi-sensei had his sharingan eye and his knowledge of their profession, he had his social skills and Sakura had her constant ability to be underestimated and then turn into a fearsome monster. Kiba had never fought her before, outside of class at least, but from her walk and the callous on her hand he’d never noticed before, he knew he’d get his ass handed to him.

Kiba settled into his bed and starred at the ceiling. On either side of him his teammates were already fast asleep, breathing even and bodies relaxed in ways they weren’t when they were awake. Kiba was not surprised that he was in the middle, neither of his teammates seemed like people who would be able to tolerate being boxed in. Sakura had the door close to her, Shikamaru had a window and Kakashi-sensei had one whole side to himself. 

He didn’t know how his teammates slept, he was too wired to. He’d just found out who he was! For the first time in his life he’d been accepted by someone, had felt close to a group of people in a way that he’d never felt before, excluding his sister of course. He’d been adopted in all but name today, by Kakashi-sensei and by his new family, but he was already a Hatake in his mind. He was a wolf of the north and he would always be, so the south could suck his ass he thought grumpily. He knew that Shino-sama had a part in why he wasn’t accepted by his mom and uncles and aunts. His sister would always tell him the story when he was younger when his mom wouldn’t look him in the eye and instead spent her time drinking cheap tequila and rum like it was water. When he was first born Hana had been seven so she was allowed to accompany their mother deep into the woods with the rest of the family to present him before Shino-sama, the spirit that ruled over the Inuzuka. The spirit had come out of the woods, in all his southern slender, and taken one sniff of Kiba and told their mother to abandon him. 

Hana had been the one to refuse him, not their mother, causing Shino-sama to laugh and declare that the next head of the family could keep him as a present if that was what she desired but under no circumstance was she to think that he was anything but. The statement had both validated Hana’s claim as the next head of the clan and destroyed his mother’s reputation. Had Shino-sama accepted him then she would have continued to be feared within the clan and had Hana passed it was possible the clan would have overlooked his blood and he would have been the next head. Because of his rejection his mother lost much of her power. The Inuzuka council disregarded her opinion from their on out and instead began to look to his then seven year old sister instead. As it stood now she was head in everything but name and as soon as their mother passed then she’d be immediately and unquestionable accepted into the position. He doubted his mother’s body would be cold in the ground before Hana would be inducted in.

Kiba heard Kakashi-sensei return from his shower, his feet moving silently agains the floor. If it wasn’t for his fresh, clean, scent of pine and ozone then Kiba wouldn’t even have noticed his return. Their was a faint ruffle of fabric as Kakashi-sensei entered his bed before a third set of breathing joined in with his other two teammates. Kiba guessed the others ability to fall quickly asleep was a requirement of the job. Ninja slept in many odd places for very short periods of time so wasting time trying to fall asleep was a detriment. Right now Kiba was jealous of this ability. 

He sat up for the rest of the night alternating between staring at the ceiling and staring out the window. He tried not too stare out the window too often because every time he did Shikamaru would shift restlessly in his sleep like he knew Kiba was looking at him. Honestly he wouldn’t be too surprised if the genius did know that he was looking at him. 

Eventually the sun did rise. At the first breaking of light, Kiba would estimate five o’clock but he wasn’t sure as their was no clock in here and he couldn’t reach his watch, Kakashi got up. Shortly after him Sakura got up and chucked a pillow at him. He deftly caught it and sat up, throwing her a glare. He was beginning to sense a theme here.

Sakura simply shrugged and grabbed clothing from her closet this time and made her way out of the room, to the bathroom to get changed he presumed. Figuring the duty of waking up Shikamaru fell to him again he poked his young partner until he stretched.

“Akamaru pounce.” He commanded. The young pup gave a quick yap of agreement before jumping onto Shikamaru’s bed like he had done last night. The young Nara gave a long groan as the pup enthusiastic licked his face before sitting up. Deciding his duty was done for the day the pup hopped off the bed and went back into his basket. Kiba grumbled about his lazy pup as he stood up and went to get dressed. Figuring that Sakura would take a while in the bathroom he quickly got dressed into his everyday clothes and headed downstairs, Shikamaru not far behind. Kakashi and Sakura were both in the kitchen already and both in their regular clothing. Sakura was holding up six boxes of what appeared to be nutritional bars while Kakashi was scratching his head, apparently mystified.

“Hey.” Kiba greeted before beginning to riffle threw the cabinets and fridge. He discovered they were bare and frowned when his stomach rumbled.

“Here.” Sakura called. He turned, catching the nutrition bar that she threw his way. It was white with bold red letters declaring it peanut butter flavoured. Shrugging he opened the packet, aware of Kakashi-sensei’s horrified stare and Shikamaru curious one as he bit into it. He abruptly realized why when the revoltingly bland taste of lightly flavoured cardboard hit his palate. He only just resisted spitting it out.

“How do you eat these things?” Kiba asked as he chugged his third glass of tap water, hoping to wash the taste out of his mouth but to no avail. 

“What are you talking about?” Sakura asked as she started on the other half of Kiba’s discarded bar. “It tastes fine to me.” She frowned down at the bar in her hands and back at Kiba, apparently unsure of how he couldn’t eat them, before taking the final bite and discarding the package in the rubbish bin.

“Do you have taste buds?” Kiba asked.

“I don’t know what you mean. These are a perfectly tasteful and practical ways to start the day, they have all the required nutrients and minerals that are needed for the bodies continued survival and they’re cheap.”

“That’s because they taste awful Sakura-chan.” Kakashi-sensei explained slowly in such a way that it made it seem like he was explaining to a two year old why they couldn’t play with a knife. “And they’re generally only used by ninja on missions who are deep undercover and thus can’t cook. They’re not suppose to be every day supplements.”

“They are acceptable meals.” Sakura said, and just to prove her part further she took out another bar form the box and devoured it in three easy bites letting out an overdramatic moan at the end just to prove her point. From the corner of his eye Kiba saw Kakashi-sensei shudder, muttering under his breath that Sakura should never be allowed to cook.

“Alright.” Kakashi clapped his hand, deciding that ignoring his students eating habits were the best choice of action for the moment. “This is our first official day of training and D-rank missions. For today you three are going to be working on cleaning out this main house, polishing, dusting and making any notes of any major repairs that are going to be needed. You’ll do that from now, which is,” he glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Five thirty am, until noon. While you’re doing that I’m going to go on a much needed shopping adventure then I should be back to supervise. We’ll break for lunch for one hour and then proceed with training until six thirty pm. After that well eat supper, shower and go back to bed. Tomorrow will be quite similar, as will the day after that, the day after that and even the day after that with one rest day on Sunday and then another rest day every five days from there on out. This will be your life for the next three months. Any objections?” When none of them said anything he smiled underneath his mask. It was a fragile thing but it was the first real smile Kiba had seen the older man give.

He’d weirdly been keeping track of that, he was at twenty-three, Shikamaru was at a measly seven, Kakashi was at one, and Sakura was also at one because fake smiles did not count.

“The cleaning supplies are in the closet by the stairs. I’ll be back in three hours or so, if you need anything send Akamaru, he’ll find me the quickest.” With that Kakashi-sensei disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving the team to their first official mission.

The morning passed with relative ease. The three of them worked well together, moving like a slight rusty, though efficient, machine. Sakura would move the furniture and beds, Shikamaru would air out the futons and Kiba and Akamaru loyal cleaned the wooden floors until they sparkled. The main house wasn’t in too bad a shape, their was a couple boards in the sitting room that would need to be replaced and a couple of kitchen cabinet hinges needed to be oiled and tightened, but overall the house wasn’t in the worst shape. Honestly it looked as if it had been abandoned ten days ago as opposed to ten years. 

Soon the morning was over. Just as Kiba’s wrist watch alerted them to it being noon, Kakashi-sensei appeared. His arms where laden with white plastic grocery bags and a green knapsack was on his back, bulging slightly with the contents. 

“Yo.” He greeted them. “Come help me but away the groceries.” Between the four of them the process moved swiftly. Kakashi handed the goods to Kiba who handed them to Sakura if it was a refrigerated good, or to Shikamaru if it was a non-perishable. Kakashi had selected many meat products and fresh vegetables. There were also several canned goods, like corn and beans and peaches, that were put away. The cabinets and refrigerator looked significantly less sad now that they were full and the house in general looked lived in again.

After a light lunch composed of sandwiches and iced tea all of them followed Kakashi onto the clans training ground. 

The grounds were overrun with weeds and the grass was high, brushing against their hips as they cut threw, but the dirt area was still more or less visible. Sakura knew that tomorrow they’d have to clear these grounds out next, after they finished the roof and windows of the main house. 

Kakashi gestured for the three of them to sit while he remains standing. Sensing he wouldn’t be needed Akamaru disappeared into the thick weeds after a yellow butterfly. Kiba side-eyed the pup but made no move to stop him.

“Good job with completing your first D-rank mission children.” Kakashi-sensei told them, eye smiling the whole time. “You’ve finished with your morning routine but now it is time to train. Because of how new the team still is I’ve elected for an evaluation day. I’m going to put you each threw a series of task individually and then together. For the last hour of the time we will spend it talking about what we did well and what could be improved on, both individual and in a team setting.”

Reaching into his pocket Kakashi withdrew four scraps of white paper. “The first exercise I want to conduct involves the use of chakra. I’m assuming from our dear Sakura-chan’s lesson on the bridge the other day that every one knows what that is and how to channel it, correct?” The three of them nodded. “That will make this significantly easier then.” He handed each of them the white paper. It was rougher and thicker then Sakura expected. It wasn’t heavy by any means, but the fibres of the paper were clearly visible, even from far away, and it felt like tree bark.

“This is chakra paper. It used to determine the elemental affiliation of a ninja. The paper is special to the fire nation and is made from the old wood trees crafted by the first Hokage. The paper absorbed the chakra of the person channeling it and can do a multitude of things. The most common is that it does one thing, either it splits in half, becomes wet, crumbles, turns to ash or crinkles. Based on what the paper does that is what nature affinity you are. For example.” Sakura watched with growing nerves as Kakashi-sensei channeled some of his chakra into the paper. The paper crinkled dramatically before becoming wet, beads of condensation slowly dripping down the page to land on the ground. Sakura swallowed hard.

“Now it’s your turn children.” 

Beside her Shikamaru and Kiba quickly did as instructed, their paper began to change shape. On her left Shikamaru’s paper turned a crumbling brown colour before it blackened further and crumbled like ash. On her right Kiba’s paper split in half before also becoming wet. 

“Well, what about you Sakura-chan?” Kakashi-sensei asked. Face perplexed. She could feel the eyes of her teammates boring into her. Sensing no way out of this she did as instructed. Breathing in she sent a small jolt of her chakra out into the paper. The reaction was instantaneous. Where the chakra coursed threw small trees began to sprout, the rest of the once white paper gradually became hard and turned into a shiny, grey, reflective surface.

“That’s. Different.” Kakashi-sensei said. Sakura released her breath.

“There’s something I need to tell you guys.” 

She made all of them sit, Kakashi-sensei included. The sun, which had felt so warm before, now felt cool on her skin. The breeze that blew through the overgrown training ground was freezing her, causing goosebumps to rise on her bare arms. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Sakura wished for better clothing.

“I come from the Haruno clan. We’re immigrates.” She lightly explained. “Our history books are unclear of exactly where our first member came from, just that it was across the sea. From where we originated the elements were different. We had no lightening and we had no wind. In there place we had metal and wood. It is said that the reason their is no metal and wood here is because my ancestors were the elements. They were two brothers who loved each other dearly. They grew together with the other elements and played together with them. However the element of metal was jealous of his brother, the wood, for human worshippers would come to his brother more often with gifts. Very few people would approach metal and those who did, did not understand his importance and as such would offer him terrible gifts. Because of this his hearth remained rather bare and he was teased for this by the other elements. 

“That changed one day, however, when the element of metal fell in love with a human woman who had offered him the first sword she’d ever forged. He loved her dearly and she loved him. She thought him great and misunderstood and he thought her sweet and lovely. Together the two of them produced a daughter, a beautiful thing with white hair, and she became his successor. Now his brother wood became jealous of the love his brother had found. He’d tried himself but he’d been unable to love any of the women who came to bring him offerings. As a result he gave birth to many children which gave rise to the thick forest in the country, but without love they did not become animated. He tried his best to love them but without loving the mother he found himself unable to love the children they produced. After more and more failed attempts he grew bitter towards his brother and the child he’d been able to produce with the woman he loved. 

“As such one day he invited his brother into the woods. It was phrased as an innocent attempt for the brothers to reconnect after having spent so long apart. The metal brother eagerly accepted and the two arranged a date to meet. It was not innocent by any means. The wood brother had made plans to kill his brother and take over his body so he could have the loving wife and daughter, believing himself more deserving of their affections then his metal brother. 

“On the day of the hunting trip the wood brother led his metal brother deep into the forest composed of his children. They traveled for many hours, so far away from civilization that no one would be able to hear them. Eventually the two brothers stopped and the wood brother turned to his metal brother and killed him. When his brother was dead he ate every part of him except for his face. With that he sowed it onto his own. After he finished eating his brother he gained his memories, though they were muddled and confusing. With no trace of his dead brother left he returned to civilization and the house in which his brother shared with his wife and daughter. 

“Upon arriving the wife greeted him, but the daughter did not. She knew right away that something was wrong, though she couldn’t place it. For many days the wooden brother acted like his metal brother, loving the wife and daughter. But eventually he slipped up. Metal and wood can not eat the same things so when the wife made his favourite supper one night and he did not eat it, they both grew suspicious. That night the wife tested him, asking him questions for which he had no answer. Knowing that he was caught the wood brother killed the wife. The daughter, who’d been hiding in the bedroom closet as the two spoke, saw this and attacked the wood brother. 

“They battled for several days, the wood brother had been made weaker by the ingestion of his brother as the two elements fought for control, the daughter, who was half elemental herself, was thus stronger and after seven days of constant fighting she was able to kill the wood brother. The battle had been bloody and dangerous and as such blood had leaked into the hair of the girl, dying it pink. After the battle the other elemental spirits of earth, water and fire, arrived sensing the unbalance in the system. Discovering the metal and wood elements dead and the daughter still alive they branded her with the names of the wood and metal brothers and exiled her for daring to kill to elemental spirits. 

“They placed her in a boat and set it adrift with no food and no water. It drifted for many days before it hit shore. The girl, weak from lack of substance, stumbled onto land. She collapsed and was found by a nearby fisherman. When she awoke the daughter fell in love with the man and together they produced five children who each embodied both the elements of wood and metal.”

“So, that’s the founding of your clan?” Kiba asked as she finished her tale.

“That’s what they tell us anyways. I’m not sure how much is true or not but that’s why our elements are different. We bow to a different affinities.”

“Do you have anyone to help you train those elements?” Kakashi-sensei asked. He was frowning slightly underneath his mask and eyeing her suspiciously. She wondered if he suspected that she left something out. She had of course. The Haruno clan history was not nearly as clean as she had made it out to be. Rather it was filled with the blood of her ancestors and the founders. After all; only one child could be produced per year.

“I have scrolls.” Which was the truth. In the box in her room if she wrote the kanji for her name on the connecting line instead of Haruno the box would open and reveal five scrolls. One for each cousin she had killed.

Kakashi-sensei nodded. “When we begin training in ninjutsu I expect you to use those.” Sakura nodded, that sounded fair.

“Alright kids, I’m going to begin your assessments now. I don’t want any more surprises.”

One by one they attacked him and he parried. Kakashi-sensei was a ferocious ninja. As they were none of them could even touch him, instead they moved around the area, sometimes half frustrated, as they fought him with everything they had in their arsenal. After this was finished they began team exercises. 

It was abundantly clear that they were not use to working together but they moved better then Sakura thought they would have. As a unit they were sloppy but the building blocks were definitely there.

In the end they lay panting in the grass, chests heaving as they fought for breath. Above them Kakashi stood absently petting Akamaru in his arms. 

“I’ll make a team out of you yet.”

Thus began their three months of training hell.


End file.
